With Steven Kruijswijk, Jumbo-Visma also has a contender for the overall victory in the Giro d’Italia, but the Dutch team will not race as dominantly in Italy from Saturday as last month in the Tour de France.
“We are not the big favorite in the Giro, as was the case in the Tour”, Kruijswijk said on Thursday at a digital press conference. “So we certainly won’t be driving as aggressively from the start as the Tour team has done. We have to be realistic about our goals and the team we have here.”
Jumbo-Visma made a big impression in the Tour de France with strong men such as Wout van Aert, Tom Dumoulin, Sepp Kuss and George Bennett. The yellow-black formation drove more than a quarter of the Tour in front of the peloton and leader Primoz Roglic also seemed to win the race, until he was driven out of the yellow in a time trial by Tadej Pogacar on the penultimate day.
In the Giro, Jumbo-Visma starts with a younger and on paper less strong team. Only the German speed rider Tony Martin was also there in the Tour, while Kruijswijk receives further support from the Dutch Koen Bouwman, Antwan Tolhoek and Jos van Emden, the German Christoph Pfingsten, the Norwegian Tobias Foss and the Australian Chris Harper.
Foss (23) and Harper (25) are talented riders, but they make their debut in a big round in the Tour of Italy. Bouman and certainly Tolhoek must become Kruijswijk’s most important helpers in the mountains.
“We have a different team here than in the Tour”, Kruijswijk emphasized. “It is less experienced and a few guys have never driven a Grand Tour. So we will certainly try to save ourselves at the beginning of the Giro.”
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Steven Kruijswijk spoke to the press via Zoom before the Giro. (Photo: screenshot)
‘For me also a question mark whether I can go for the podium’
The 33-year-old Kruijswijk himself starts his eighth Giro and his eighteenth grand round. De Brabander, who seemed to be on his way to the overall victory in Italy four years ago until he fell in the pink leader’s jersey in a descent in the last week, is going for a top result, although he does not know very well about his form.
The climber was supposed to start in the Tour more than a month ago, but suffered a small fracture in his shoulder in the Critérium du Dauphiné in mid-August, after which he shifted the focus to the Giro. As a result, and due to the corona crisis, he only has seven race days to his name this year.
“Whether I can go for a podium place? I also ask myself that question. I mainly trained a lot this year and raced few races. In any case, I am fit, I had a good preparation for the Giro and I am very motivated to do something. On the third day we are already going to climb to Etna, so I will soon know how good I am. “
The course seems in favor of Kruijswijk, who is normally at his best in the third week of a grand tour. In the Giro there are in the last days some very tough mountain stages of more than 200 kilometers on the program. “We didn’t have time to explore the stages, but looking at the road book, this is the toughest final week of a grand tour I’ve ever seen.”
The 103rd edition of the Giro starts on Saturday with a time trial of 15 kilometers from Monreale to Palermo. It is one of no less than three time trials of this Tour of Italy.
