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Steven Kruijswijk

Going to top 10 the Giro in excellent company.

There's now a genuine debate to be had as to where he and Gessink rank against each other - Krujswijk has ridden competatively against guys Gessink doesn't beat either - Scarponi, Nibali, Menchov, Rodriguez and Kreuziger all in the same ball park, on a very tough route.
 
Mar 8, 2010
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That was impressive again, after last year.
Was just thinking:"If there was another week, he would win it." :D

This guy was getting stronger and stronger every day, and even in final week, like der Jan.
Sad GTs only have three weeks.
 

Barrus

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Waterloo Sunrise said:
Also, my bad, not going to top 10 - I'd assumed Nieve & HTCGCUnit7 were going to lose more time.

Huh, I thought he was just in front of Nieve on the ninth spot
 
Given the level of competition this Giro, and how prominent he has been, I'd have to say Kruijsie on well on his way to replacing TGBM as the #2 Dutch GC man. Mollema managed 12th last year, and that was a Top-10 filled with the likes of Porte, Pinotti and Kiserlovski.
 

Barrus

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Moondance said:
Given the level of competition this Giro, and how prominent he has been, I'd have to say Kruijsie on well on his way to replacing TGBM as the #2 Dutch GC man. Mollema managed 12th last year, and that was a Top-10 filled with the likes of Porte, Pinotti and Kiserlovski.

But unlike at least some of them, Mollema did not have the benefit of being in the L'Aquila break. Although I agree, what Kruijswijk showed this giro does appear to be better than what Mollema showed last year
 
Jul 5, 2010
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So far both Gesink and Mollema have shown far more than Kruijswijk. But sure an impressive ride by him. Hopefully he will be able to continue to improve from here. It is always a good sign if young riders manage to do well in a 3rd week of a GT.
 
Dutchsmurf said:
So far both Gesink and Mollema have shown far more than Kruijswijk. But sure an impressive ride by him. Hopefully he will be able to continue to improve from here. It is always a good sign if young riders manage to do well in a 3rd week of a GT.

If he improves from here, he'll be the 3rd best GC rider very quickly - he already seems to be solidly in the everyone bar Bertie & Andy club, which give his age, and apparent disposition for recovery and lasting 3 weeks, bodes extremely well.
 
Barrus said:
But unlike at least some of them, Mollema did not have the benefit of being in the L'Aquila break. Although I agree, what Kruijswijk showed this giro does appear to be better than what Mollema showed last year

True. If the l'Aquila stage doesn't transpire the way it did, Mollema may have ridden a Top-10 too.

But I'm talking about how he did it. Mollema never finished a MTF with the best men that Giro. He kept the losses minimized, but whenever Basso, or Evans, or Scarponi, got going that Giro, TGBM went backwards.

Kruijsie has shown himself fully capable of at least holding his own to the likes of Neebs, Scaponi & Menchov when it comes to climbing. That's much more impressive than anything Mollema showed last year.
 
Oct 16, 2009
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Rabo will have a good team in future grand tours. Kruijswijk is the new TGBM, TGBM is the new Gesink, and Gesink is the new Joost Posthuma.
 

Barrus

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Moondance said:
True. If the l'Aquila stage doesn't transpire the way it did, Mollema may have ridden a Top-10 too.

But I'm talking about how he did it. Mollema never finished a MTF with the best men that Giro. He kept the losses minimized, but whenever Basso, or Evans, or Scarponi, got going that Giro, TGBM went backwards.

Kruijsie has shown himself fully capable of at least holding his own to the likes of Neebs, Scaponi & Menchov when it comes to climbing. That's much more impressive than anything Mollema showed last year.

Oh yes, I certainly agree with this. However in order to be a real GC rider he will have to improve the first few weeks. He finished fantastically, but did lose some time on MTF in the earlier part of the giro, or am I wrong in my recollection? However, the manner in which he appeared to recover does really bode extremely well. I just hope they let him take a different route from Mollema and don't just use him as a domestique for Gesink:(
 
May 12, 2010
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Barrus said:
Oh yes, I certainly agree with this. However in order to be a real GC rider he will have to improve the first few weeks. He finished fantastically, but did lose some time on MTF in the earlier part of the giro, or am I wrong in my recollection? However, the manner in which he appeared to recover does really bode extremely well. I just hope they let him take a different route from Mollema and don't just use him as a domestique for Gesink:(

He lost 2:21 on Contador on the Etna, and about 1:30 on guys like Nibali, Sivtsov and Kreuziger, finishing 29th. He also lost a lot of time on the stage to Castelfidardo, he was in the break all day, but caught in the final, and lost 1:25. If he hadn't tried anything that day he would be comfortably in the top-10, but it was a good try anyway.
 
Barrus said:
Oh yes, I certainly agree with this. However in order to be a real GC rider he will have to improve the first few weeks. He finished fantastically, but did lose some time on MTF in the earlier part of the giro, or am I wrong in my recollection? However, the manner in which he appeared to recover does really bode extremely well. I just hope they let him take a different route from Mollema and don't just use him as a domestique for Gesink:(

He lost quite a lot of time in the Castelfidardo stage which Gadret won, almost 1'30.

Although he lost it because he went on the offensive in the break, and was shelled when the break was reeled in.
 
Jun 1, 2010
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Kruiswijk was defenitely great this Giro, very impressive today and yesterday especially. Don't know how he compares to Mollema and Gesink though..

Going to be interesting for Dutch cycling with Gesink, Mollema and Kruiswijk. Let's just hope the three of them don't stick around at Rabo forever.
 
Waterloo Sunrise said:
Going to top 10 the Giro in excellent company.

There's now a genuine debate to be had as to where he and Gessink rank against each other - Krujswijk has ridden competatively against guys Gessink doesn't beat either - Scarponi, Nibali, Menchov, Rodriguez and Kreuziger all in the same ball park, on a very tough route.
Kruijswijk himself says Gesink is a cut above him, and he should know because they're neighbours in Girona and often train together. But he's surely been impressive in the final week, certainly today he never looked like he was in any trouble.

As for the guys Gesink doesn't beat: he's head and shoulders above Kreuziger as a GT rider, as we've seen in last year's Tour.
 
theyoungest said:
Kruijswijk himself says Gesink is a cut above him, and he should know because they're neighbours in Girona and often train together. But he's surely been impressive in the final week, certainly today he never looked like he was in any trouble.

As for the guys Gesink doesn't beat: he's head and shoulders above Kreuziger as a GT rider, as we've seen in last year's Tour.

I didn't post it to make a defence of gesink vs each of those riders as an argument, I've just listed big names guys who can sometimes beat each other, and whom it would be hard to argue that Gesink is much better than, corporately, if you see what i'm getting at.
 
Jun 22, 2009
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This be good times for dutch cycling :D

I knew Kruijswijk could do a good ride here in italy, but this blew my expectations out of the water. Has been so strong.

Like youngest said, Kruijswijk said Gesink is something else. The two had been training together, and steven suggests that Gesink has helped him progress a lot.

certainly has great climbing legs. IMO been more impressive then the likes of Kreuziger here. Let us hope, like moondance says, he avoids the tour + domestique duties and rides the giro / vuelta for gc.
 
Mar 10, 2009
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In retrospect, kruijswijk might have lost some time on etna as it was the first mtf? Perhaps the transition affected him more than more experienced riders, perhaps it was psychological, can I hang with the top dogs, perhaps it was just a bad day? Hard to say, but his recovery was excellent.

What I did see on the road, but correct me if i am wrong, he seems to have much better acceleration uphill as compared to the likes of gesink, basso, menchov... The diesels.

I am looking forward to seeing him compete in future stage races, because he sure looks like a very complete rider.
 
Oct 29, 2009
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This has been touted as the toughest Giro they could throw at riders, and with week 3 as the cherry on one stodgy pie. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would see Kruiswijk more than keeping his own with GT winners and the most prolific names this Giro.

His recovery indeed seems excellent [thanks D.T.], and he appears to have more direct response to explosive attacks than Gesink. It also felt as if he was making more mature race decisions stage by stage too.

It is working out quite well for Rabo to have 'starless' teams tackle the Giro, as it looks the other riders are getting a real chance to discover themselves. Before it all kicked off, some were touting the team as an example of teams that were probably a bit to weak to feature, given the b-squad's entry. Others were pointing out that that same approach worked out quite well last year. I don't think Rabo will be looking back with much regrets, except maybe having to sit down with Kruiswijk's contract again sooner rather than later, now he has shown he's got spiwit in a very attractive shop window.

I am not sure if it just me/us who are pleasantly surprised, I doubt if Kruiswijk had expected to be out there peddling happily along with Contador on the penultimate climb on the last stage either.

It is a real shame that Kreuziger is just pipping him to that white jersey, as it would have been a well deserved crown on a superb youngster's Giro, if he had walked away with it.

I was actually wondering if the poor Etna transition had something to do with Rabo having had the pink jersey in the days running up to it, and that day too?
 

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