Steven Kruijswijk

2011–2015

In 2011, Kruijswijk finished 8th overall in the Giro d'Italia and won Stage 6 in the Tour de Suisse, finishing third overall.^[3] His second career victory came at the Arctic Race of Norway in 2014.

Kruijswijk (left), wearing the maglia azzurra of mountains classification leader, at the 2015 Giro d'Italia

In 2015, Kruijswijk led LottoNL–Jumbo at the Giro d'Italia. Although he lost time in the first week, Kruijswijk rode a strong second half of the race, with finishing second to Mikel Landa on stage 16 from Pinzolo to Aprica which was the queen stage of the race, and eventually finishing seventh overall, 10 minutes and 53 seconds down on Alberto Contador.^[4] Kruijswijk held the blue jersey as leader of the mountains classification from stages 16 to 18, and placed third in that competition behind Giovanni Visconti and Landa.^[5] With his efforts in the second half the race, Kruijswijk was praised by many as the next general classification rider from the Netherlands. Kruijswijk took his form into the Tour de France where he helped team-mate Robert Gesink finish in 6th place overall. Kruijswijk was also active himself on mountain stages by going into breakaways, however he had no luck of winning a stage.

2016

Kruijswijk, wearing the maglia rosa of general classification leader, at the 2016 Giro d'Italia

In 2016, Kruijswijk rode the Giro d'Italia again, which began with three stages in the Netherlands. On the queen stage of the race, stage 14 from Palmanova to Cividale del Friuli, Kruijswijk finished second behind Esteban Chaves (Orica–GreenEDGE) to take the overall lead by 41 seconds over Vincenzo Nibali (Astana).^[6] On stage 15, a mountainous time trial finishing on the Seiser Alm, Kruijswijk again finished second, this time to Alexander Foliforov (Gazprom–RusVelo) to increase his lead to 2 minutes and 12 seconds over Chaves, as Nibali encountered mechanical issues, and dropped to third overall, 2 minutes 51 seconds behind Kruijswijk.^[7] Stage 16 from Bressanone to Andalo saw Kruijswijk finish second for the third stage in a row, behind Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) and he increased his lead over Chaves to 3 minutes.^[8]

However, on stage 19 Kruijswijk crashed on the descent of the Colle dell'Agnello whilst following an attack by Nibali and Chaves, landing on a bank of snow on the side of the road. Although he was able to continue, Kruijswijk finished the stage almost five minutes down on Nibali and more than four minutes behind Chaves, thus dropping to third overall.^[9] He visited the hospital after the stage where it was confirmed he had broken 2 ribs in the crash.^[10] Nonetheless, he started stage 20 where he lost further time and dropped behind Valverde to fourth overall.^[11] He finished the Giro in fourth overall.^[12] In July, Kruijswijk signed a two-year contract extension with the team.^[13] Following the disappointment of just missing out on the Giro win, Kruijswijk started the Vuelta a España, aiming to ride a good general classification in the race. He abandoned the race already in the first week after a heavy crash.^[14]

2017

Kruiswijk at the 2017 Giro d'Italia

Kruijswijk aimed to win the 100th edition of the Giro d'Italia in 2017, after just missing out on the race win in 2016. His best result before the Giro was 7th overall at the Volta a Catalunya. He never reached his form from the previous year in the Giro however, and Kruijswijk abandoned the race in the last days due to illness. He quickly recovered at the Tour de Suisse, and reached the podium with 3rd overall. He was looking to redeem himself at the Vuelta a España where he was the team leader for Team LottoNL-Jumbo. Kruijswijk never reached the form he had the previous year and only broke inside the top 10 on the final days. With a 7th place on the finish to Alto de l'Angliru, Kruijswijk finished 9th overall in the race.

2018

Kruijswijk at the 2018 Tour de France

For the 2018 season, Kruijswijk's target was on the Tour de France together with co-captain Primož Roglič. At his final preparation race for the Tour, Kruijswijk reached 8th position at the Tour de Suisse. When arriving at the Tour de France, Kruijswijk had a decent start and only lost time on the Team Time Trial on stage 3. When the race entered the mountains, Kruijswijk attacked on stage 12, and entered the breakaway. He attacked solo with 80 km to go before getting caught just 5 km from the finish line on Alpe d'Huez. He actually made it two thirds of the way up Alpe d'Huez before the group with the leader of the general classification finally caught him and despite the fact he was caught he still managed to fight for a top ten finish on the stage. For his brave effort, Kruijswijk received the combativity award on stage 12 and this mammoth effort also put him in good position to compete for a top 10 finish for the general classification in the Tour de France, entering the third week in the high mountains of the Pyrenees. Kruijswijk would stay with the elite riders through the final week and ride a decent individual time trial on stage 20 to finish 5th overall.

Following his strong Tour de France campaign it was decided that Kruijswijk would ride the Clásica de San Sebastián as one the team leaders. Kruijswijk finished the race in 9th place with team-mates Robert Gesink and Antwan Tolhoek taking 8th and 10th place respectively. Going into the his second Grand Tour of the year Vuelta a España, Kruijswijk was awarded the role of team leader alongside George Bennett. With a strong perfomance in the first week it was then decided that Team LottoNL-Jumbo would ride 100% in pursuit of a podium with Kruijswijk. He entered the top 5 on stage 14 after an attack on the final climb of the stage. Riding one of his best ever Time trial efforts he finished 4th on the final Time trial of the stage, advancing to 3rd place overall. On the following day however, Kruijswijk had a bad day on the steep climb to Balcón de Bizkaia, and dropped to 5th place in the general classification. On the pen-ultimate stage Kruijswijk once again entered the top 3 when he finished 3rd on stage 19. When three of his contenders for the podium rode away on the second last climb of the day, Kruijswijk hesitated and lost his podium place as he had to ride the final of the last climb in his own pace. He finished in 4th place overall at the Vuelta a España.