Steven Kruijswijk

[Amsterhammer]

Nothing but the very deepest respect for what Steven showed today. Everyone knows that he's the moral winner, and he will have made many new fans these last three weeks.

 

[Tonton]

I'm afraid that Steven Kruijswijk let go the chance of a lifetime. That he may never be in this position again. I'm no fan of his, but I feel really sad for him. And I admire his attitude, his candor. My Dutch friends, you must be super disappointed. But look at the bright side: Tom at the Vuelta, Steven now, the state of NL cycling is pretty darn good...

 

[Red Rick]

Steven has handled himself like a champ yesterday and today. Can only have the greatest resepect for that

 

[staubsauger]

His summary of the eventual outcome of the race was upper classy and honorable. Taking the blame explicitly on himself as he did yesterday already! A brave warrior and very likable character he is!

 

[Carols]

“It was a big chance for me to win a Grand Tour, and I think I was one of the best in the race,” Kruijswijk said. “But staying on your bike is also cycling and that’s what I lacked yesterday.”

Kruijswijk didn’t flinch when asked what lessons he had drawn from this most cruel end to his Giro. “It ain’t over till it’s over,” he said, not with rancour but as a simple statement of fact. “You see that it’s a fight to the last day.”

Life lessons learned. He was formidable and next time will be more so having learned something here. I see a top step in this man's future!

 

[cineteq]

Re:

I admire his honesty, I have a lot of respect for that. Glad he din't play the bad luck card.

“It was a big chance for me to win a Grand Tour, and I think I was one of the best in the race,” Kruijswijk said. “But staying on your bike is also cycling and that’s what I lacked yesterday.”

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

He must be gutted he threw a GT win away like that. I wonder if Lotto can keep him now his contract is ending

 

[staubsauger]

If I was Lampre-Merida I'd throw all my cash on Kruijswijk to build a team around him. They can't get a better leader plus domestiques with their budget.

If I was Kruijswijk I'd probably even sign for Lampre. There ain't no bigger team where he gets leadership at the Giro and some decent lieutenants.

Guess he stays with Lotto though.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re:

If I was Lampre-Merida I'd throw all my cash on Kruijswijk to build a team around him. They can't get a better leader plus domestiques with their budget.

If I was Kruijswijk I'd probably even sign for Lampre. There ain't no bigger team where he gets leadership at the Giro and some decent lieutenants.

Guess he stays with Lotto though.

Etixx Trek Cannondale and Giant could all offer decent lieutenants and he'd get leadership there

 

[jsem94]

He either needs to leave or LottoNL need to sign some climbing doms for next season. IAM is folding, some riders avaliable, should be possible.

 

[liamito]

I like BMC for him

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

He says he is still gutted he lost the Giro in the way he did. But he also said he learned a lot about himself and now knows he is GT winning material.

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

I like BMC for him

Only if TJVG or Porte leave which is unlikely.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

I like BMC for him

Only if TJVG or Porte leave which is unlikely.

Like any of those wants to lead the Giro

 

[CatsNK]

Re:

I still can't believe why LottoNL-Jumbo didn't send a rider in the break. Everybody knew if a top rider attacks on Agnello, Kruijswijk remains alone. But all the GC favourites were alone, Chaves, Nibali, Majka, ok Valverde had Amador, but that's it. The difference was all those teams had riders in the break, except for Lotto. I know they had to work from the start of the stage but all the riders weren't needed. Why not send a Roglic, a Battaglin or a Tankink in the break. They would've waited for Kruijswijk on the Agnello descent and could've been of big help in the part between the big climbs. Here is where the Giro is lost IMO. It was a tactical mistake. Off course if Kruijswijk is injured, it doesn't matter for tomorrow. But if he is able to ride normally the team directors should blame themselves.

ITA with this assessment. If a person from Lotto was in the break, Kruijswijk would have had a far easier time of it. He was let down by his team. Who knows what the outcome would have been if he had had assistance from a teammate after his crash, but certainly he would have had a better chance.

 

[WillemS]

So, Kruijswijk is now officially part of the final Dutch Olympic selection for Rio, along with Poels, Dumoulin, & Mollema.

I wonder what that will mean for his Vuelta ambitions.

Source: NOS

 

[liamito]

Re:

So, Kruijswijk is now officially part of the final Dutch Olympic selection for Rio, along with Poels, Dumoulin, & Mollema.

I wonder what that will mean for his Vuelta ambitions.

Source: NOS

Maybe he feels Vuelta does not suit him that well anyway? Funny to see really all the likely Vuelta contenders seem to go to Rio first.

 

[Kwibus]

Re: Re:

So, Kruijswijk is now officially part of the final Dutch Olympic selection for Rio, along with Poels, Dumoulin, & Mollema.

I wonder what that will mean for his Vuelta ambitions.

Source: NOS

Maybe he feels Vuelta does not suit him that well anyway? Funny to see really all the likely Vuelta contenders seem to go to Rio first.

To be fair Kruijswijk has never shown anything in 1 day races so I don't understand his selection. Chance is that he isn't on form by then as well.
They better send Gesink who normally rides 3 weeks of the TdF, allthough if he goes for the GC again he's probably empty at the end of the TdF.
Both won't really matter to the race anyways....

 

[Red Rick]

Kruijswijk over Gesink is just incredibly stupid, for multiple reasons. Purely selected on hype

 

[pablohidalgo7]

LOL Gesink was aiming for Rio so badly, it was one of his main goals this season. It´s a mistake to choose the riders before le tour, for example perharps robert or Wilco do it better than bauke in France, and mollema is selected anyway, just no sense.

 

[Kwibus]

LOL Gesink was aiming for Rio so badly, it was one of his main goals this season. It´s a mistake to choose the riders before le tour, for example perharps robert or Wilco do it better than bauke in France, and mollema is selected anyway, just no sense.

Well Bauke is always a good bet for a top 10..

Selecting Kruijswijk over Gesink is a big mistake though. Sometimes I really wonder if I know more about cycling than the KNWU does. They say they can't deny Kruijswijk a spot on the team after what he has shown this Giro. Being one of the best climbers in the world and the Olympics is a climbers course.

All very true, but do they take in mind that Kruijswijk has never shown anything in 1-day races and that he's mostly likely to go into a rest period and try to build up for the Vuelta again so he will be in absolutely no form at all during the Olympics while Gesink said he won't do GC (not sure if he will) and just tries to win stages and make sure he has peakform and head for the Olympics.
Still I have not much faith in him doing any good during the Olympics, because he seems to get worse and worse in 1 day races as well. Still.. Kruijswijk doing good in brasil.... the chances of that are below 10%.

 

[Vesica]

Completely agree with the post above from Kwibus. The KNWU has absolutely no idea how to select riders, and its not the first time...btw same for the women selection..

 

[WillemS]

Cycling and Kruijswijk were very hyped during the Giro in the Netherlands, a Giro that was already hyped due to the start combined with the Dumoulin pink. Sadly, from my perspective, that hype coincided with selection time and, hence, Kruijswijk was selected.

Image the media outrage if he were passed for, say, Gesing, who has a very bad reputation amongst casual Dutch cycling fans. I think the KNWU don't really believe in a victory, so went with the solution that rings best with the press and the "fans".

Although no great one-day racer himself, I do think Gesink is much better at one-day races than Kruijswijk.

 

[May0maniac]

LOL Gesink was aiming for Rio so badly, it was one of his main goals this season. It´s a mistake to choose the riders before le tour, for example perharps robert or Wilco do it better than bauke in France, and mollema is selected anyway, just no sense.

Well Bauke is always a good bet for a top 10..

Selecting Kruijswijk over Gesink is a big mistake though. Sometimes I really wonder if I know more about cycling than the KNWU does. They say they can't deny Kruijswijk a spot on the team after what he has shown this Giro. Being one of the best climbers in the world and the Olympics is a climbers course.

All very true, but do they take in mind that Kruijswijk has never shown anything in 1-day races and that he's mostly likely to go into a rest period and try to build up for the Vuelta again so he will be in absolutely no form at all during the Olympics while Gesink said he won't do GC (not sure if he will) and just tries to win stages and make sure he has peakform and head for the Olympics.
Still I have not much faith in him doing any good during the Olympics, because he seems to get worse and worse in 1 day races as well. Still.. Kruijswijk doing good in brasil.... the chances of that are below 10%.

You're right, but the team will probably use Kruijswijk as a workhorse, maybe that's the reason why they didn't pick Gesink who has a few very good results in one day races and would have personal ambitions, but they shouldn't be the ones that control the race.
Edit: About Gesink not being a great one day racer, he has done well in the Canadian classics and won the 2010 Giro dell' Emilia against a pretty decent field, so he has some talent and good results.

 

[WillemS]

LOL Gesink was aiming for Rio so badly, it was one of his main goals this season. It´s a mistake to choose the riders before le tour, for example perharps robert or Wilco do it better than bauke in France, and mollema is selected anyway, just no sense.

Well Bauke is always a good bet for a top 10..

Selecting Kruijswijk over Gesink is a big mistake though. Sometimes I really wonder if I know more about cycling than the KNWU does. They say they can't deny Kruijswijk a spot on the team after what he has shown this Giro. Being one of the best climbers in the world and the Olympics is a climbers course.

All very true, but do they take in mind that Kruijswijk has never shown anything in 1-day races and that he's mostly likely to go into a rest period and try to build up for the Vuelta again so he will be in absolutely no form at all during the Olympics while Gesink said he won't do GC (not sure if he will) and just tries to win stages and make sure he has peakform and head for the Olympics.
Still I have not much faith in him doing any good during the Olympics, because he seems to get worse and worse in 1 day races as well. Still.. Kruijswijk doing good in brasil.... the chances of that are below 10%.

You're right, but the team will probably use Kruijswijk as a workhorse, maybe that's the reason why they didn't pick Gesink who has a few very good results in one day races and would have personal ambitions, but they shouldn't be the ones that control the race.
Edit: About Gesink not being a great one day racer, he has done well in the Canadian classics and won the 2010 Giro dell' Emilia against a pretty decent field, so he has some talent and good results.

Yeah, Gesink actually won Emilia twice (2009 & 2010) and got a lot of great results in Canada (won both Montreal and Quebec + a couple of top 10s and podiums). He also did reasonably well in other one-day races (4th in the Fleche, 3rd in the Amstel, 7th San Sebastian, 6th Lombarida, 10th in Beijing).