Steven Kruijswijk

[jens_attacks]

i still believe. imminent attack on mortirolo.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Yeah I definately still expect firework in the 3rd week as usual. But the point is he can't reach much more than 6/7 now. Maybe 5th place if one of the top fail.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

Yeah I definately still expect firework in the 3rd week as usual. But the point is he can't reach much more than 6/7 now. Maybe 5th place if one of the top fail.

So he gets Mollema's spot then.

Dutchbrawl.

 

[Red Rick]

I'd rather seen him lose half an hour today and just go into breakaway/secretdumoulinoperativeshouldtomneedit mode.

 

[movingtarget]

Re: Re:

Had an unique chance. Didn't take it. Will regret that his entire life.

He was in the form of his life and not to take advantage of it will probably haunt him.

I think (hope) these comments are premature. People forget at the time of his crash in last year's Giro he was absolutely demolishing Nibali - look at the MTT result!
Form of your life isn't an accident it can be replicated with the right prep and some good luck. One hit wonders are for bands not bike racers. Not sure what went wrong today but he can find out why and come back to avenge Giro 2016.

I think that's the point, it's not 2016 anymore. I still hope he can get a good result but to drop so much time on the first mountain stage that was really attacked, well it's not ideal. Riders always try to replicate optimum form but it's never easy to achieve.

 

[SafeBet]

Last year he also benefitted from an easier first week, there was no Blockhaus and no Quintana to fly over it.
I'm expecting him to finish ahead of Mollema and possibly even Dumoulin. He'll peak as usual in the third week and go berserk on the Stelvio.

I believe.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

Last year he also benefitted from an easier first week, there was no Blockhaus and no Quintana to fly over it.
I'm expecting him to finish ahead of Mollema and possibly even Dumoulin. He'll peak as usual in the third week and go berserk on the Stelvio.

I believe.

Last year he was also already really good on the first medium mountain stage on stage 4, thats not really Kruijswijk-esque. He got everything right last year apart from you-know-what.

 

[Valv.Piti]

The Vuelta is much more suited to Kruijswijk this year than normally. I think he could possibly do well there this year (didn't believe in him last year). I don't know how he feels about the weather tho.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Yeah, the season is long from over. He should just focus on doing a good 3rd week and maybe get a stage win, and then focus on the Vuelta.
I guess he will be disappointed even more today though.

 

[movingtarget]

Not even close to last year's form unfortunately. At this stage of the race it's hard to see him hanging on in the third week.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Like I said, crash in yorkshire took top end form out. It aint easy starting a GT with hurt ribs.

I think also the slow realization that last years form isn't coming is hitting him now and hurting his morale. He can't motivate himself for just a top 10 when he was so close to winning. Only hope for him is just let the GC go and try a stage win. Or quit and focus on the Vuelta already.

 

[HelloDolly]

The solution on this forum when anyone has a bad few stages and falls out of GC is "Quit and go to the Vuelta"..like that is the answer to everything

Firstly the Vuelta is a long way off and the Giro is now
The Vuelta wil be top heavy with riders like Froome and maybe Contador and Valverde and whoever ...no guarantee of even a top 10 at the 'over crowded' Vuelta
If SK is not badly hurt then he could ride on for a stage later on..he has targetted this race and spent ages training for it
But he coud rally next week and ride back up GC...
No one knows what is yet to come ...he could be the receipant of as equal good luck this year as he was bad luck last year

I am so glad some of you are not DSs ...you'd be sacked...LNLJ are here with a team for the Giro ...as are others...not here to recruit riders for the Vuelta

They dont have an infinite budget to just quit when behind

I think the fights on and he could (who knows if recovered) get back up there
If he is ill then maybe quit but not if he can ride

 

[staubsauger]

There's still the Tour de Suisse. I don't really see Bardet and Aru going there. They'll opt for the Dauphine instead. So why shouldn't Kruijswijk ride himself back in shape at the Giro and peak for Suisse!? Dumoulin should be more exhausted after being beaten or gone all out for a close win at the Giro. The likes of Spilak should be beatable anyway with proper shape!

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Re:

The solution on this forum when anyone has a bad few stages and falls out of GC is "Quit and go to the Vuelta"..like that is the answer to everything

Firstly the Vuelta is a long way off and the Giro is now
The Vuelta wil be top heavy with riders like Froome and maybe Contador and Valverde and whoever ...no guarantee of even a top 10 at the 'over crowded' Vuelta
If SK is not badly hurt then he could ride on for a stage later on..he has targetted this race and spent ages training for it
But he coud rally next week and ride back up GC...
No one knows what is yet to come ...he could be the receipant of as equal good luck this year as he was bad luck last year

I am so glad some of you are not DSs ...you'd be sacked...LNLJ are here with a team for the Giro ...as are others...not here to recruit riders for the Vuelta

They dont have an infinite budget to just quit when behind

I think the fights on and he could (who knows if recovered) get back up there
If he is ill then maybe quit but not if he can ride

Well put

 

[Valv.Piti]

After Etna I thought he was on track and the following days would do him well, then he lost 3 minutes on Blockhaus and i thought to myself that it was a bit too much but something he would be able to overcome, but this is a pretty big deal IMO. He shouldn't be dropped today. And it was instantly.

Can still come good in the last week, but I very much doubt he can even reach his 2015 level now.

 

[dacooley]

the crash sustained at yorkshire aside, kruiswijk seems not to get over the mental blow from the last giro which is the biggest issue imo. damn, there is one single mistake between becoming the giro winner, getting the opportunity to build a new team around oneself from one side and fighting for 10-15 places which steven does in this giro from the other one... it's a really tough luck.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Re:

After Etna I thought he was on track and the following days would do him well, then he lost 3 minutes on Blockhaus and i thought to myself that it was a bit too much but something he would be able to overcome, but this is a pretty big deal IMO. He shouldn't be dropped today. And it was instantly.

Can still come good in the last week, but I very much doubt he can even reach his 2015 level now.

His 2015 level was way better. Sure he dropped 8 minutes in 1 stage or something, but after that he was good everywhere. Now he isn't even close. 2016 was not that much better than 2015, just the field weaker

 

[SafeBet]

Re:

The solution on this forum when anyone has a bad few stages and falls out of GC is "Quit and go to the Vuelta"..like that is the answer to everything

Firstly the Vuelta is a long way off and the Giro is now
The Vuelta wil be top heavy with riders like Froome and maybe Contador and Valverde and whoever ...no guarantee of even a top 10 at the 'over crowded' Vuelta
If SK is not badly hurt then he could ride on for a stage later on..he has targetted this race and spent ages training for it
But he coud rally next week and ride back up GC...
No one knows what is yet to come ...he could be the receipant of as equal good luck this year as he was bad luck last year

I am so glad some of you are not DSs ...you'd be sacked...LNLJ are here with a team for the Giro ...as are others...not here to recruit riders for the Vuelta

They dont have an infinite budget to just quit when behind

I think the fights on and he could (who knows if recovered) get back up there
If he is ill then maybe quit but not if he can ride

Spot on! There were people last year saying Nibali should've abandoned aster the MTT.

Kruijswijk can still reach the top10, possibly the top5. That's a lot for a team like Lotto.

 

[Red Rick]

Meanwhile, in the background, Kruijswijk seems to be improving toward a pretty competitive level in the 3rd week.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

I think's it somewhat different. Kruijswijk still doesn't have great shape, but the recuperation is starting to kick in and as other riders get worse, Kruijswijk stays on the same level. So he will be more to the fore..

Probably will pass Amador and Jungels in one of the upcoming giant stages. I even think he might go for a long range attack in the double Stelvio stage. If Lotto is smart they will sent out some strong guys like Campenaerts and Clement to pull him through the valleys

 

[SafeBet]

As I previously said, a top5 is not completely out of the picture. You guys tend to forget how big the gaps get in the third week.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Kruijswijk said on the rest day he had a crack in the ribs after Yorkshire and he started the Giro with that. As if it wasn't obvious he wasn't 100% in the beginning of the Giro. That Yorkshire crash took out more then LottoNL let on.

Well with a good 3rd week he could still pass a few people like Jungels, Mollema etc

 

[Kwibus]

Re:

Kruijswijk said on the rest day he had a crack in the ribs after Yorkshire and he started the Giro with that. As if it wasn't obvious he wasn't 100% in the beginning of the Giro. That Yorkshire crash took out more then LottoNL let on.

Well with a good 3rd week he could still pass a few people like Jungels, Mollema etc

I don't expect too much from him. Somehow everyone thought he was doing better on Oropa, but maybe it wasn't as awful as previous stages, but it still wasn't very good. Well I hope he can surprise me, but I doubt it.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

I disagree, for a one climb stage that was good for Kruijswijk. Don't forget even in super form last year he is by no means good on 1MT stages. He likes the multi climb stages much more. So today will tell us a lot more if we can expect anything or not.

 

[WheelofGear]

Kruijswijk was never good in one-week races tbh.

In Suisse, he'll get beaten by Ion Izagirre, López and Poels.