Steven Kruijswijk made a massive impact in the queen stage of the Giro d'Italia today to Aprica. The Dutch Team LottoNL-Jumbo rider placed second in stage 16 behind Mikel Landa of Astana. With his ride, Kruijswijk jumped from 14th to eighth overall and claimed the blue mountain jersey.

The 16th stage stunned the peloton in advance. During Monday’s rest day, the riders had plenty of time to absorb the day’s profile. After they saw what was waiting for them, they crawled on their Tacx trainers early in the morning to warm up. After the start, it was straight uphill. Via the Campo Carlo Magno and the Passo del Tonale, the pack headed to the scary steep Mortirolo, where Kruijswijk laid the foundation for placing second with an attack.

Kruijswijk was followed by pink jersey Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) and Landa on the 13-kilometre long climb. With a good final effort, he arrived at the top first and secured the blue jersey.
 
The three headed towards the finish together. Landa had saved his energy while sitting in Kruijswijk’s wheel, with the excuse that his team-mate Fabio Aru was chasing behind them. He attacked with a few kilometres to go and won the stage. Kruijswijk sprinted to second.

Steven Kruijswijk
"Did Contador call me the strongest man in the race? That’s a great compliment,” Kruijswijk said immediately after the stage. “I have to say I felt very good. I’m very satisfied with my legs at the moment. Hopefully, I can benefit from it during the rest of the week as well.” 

Kruijswijk realised that winning the stage was going to be hard, when he started the final uphill kilometres to Aprica.

“Landa was just too strong. I already knew that before the rest day. I therefore decided to take as much time as possible in the last ten kilometres, instead of fighting for a stage win,” Kruijswijk said. His plan helped him to move into the top ten of the general classification.

Jan Boven 
“I didn’t expect this,” Sports Director Jan Boven explained. “The way Steven realised this is very special. He led the race from the bottom to the top of the Mortirolo. His altitude training camp is paying off now.” 

Team performance
Boven also praised the rest of the team. “The other guys delivered today. Maarten Tjallingii, Martijn Keizer and Nick van der Lijke dropped off Steven at the front for the Mortirolo. The first descent of the Aprica was quite dangerous and Contador lost some time, but we were right were we had to be.”

Now Kruijswijk has the blue jersey on his shoulders, the team wants to hang on to it. “But we continue to take things day by day. When Steven lost eight minutes, we remained calm and we’ll continue to do so. Frans Maassen and I will keep preparing the riders as well as possible for the stages. We will give Steven useful information. We must be attentive, every day.”
 
Wednesday
Kruijswijk and the other GC riders can somewhat recover from their efforts on Wednesday. After a relatively flat 134-kilometre stage from Tirano to Lugano, it is likely that the sprinters will decide who will take home the flowers.
 
“Moreno Hofland crashed today and hurt his shoulder,” Boven said. “That was a shock. We have to wait and see tomorrow. Anyway, it’s going to be an exciting day, as we start the day with a climb.”