Steven Kruijswijk confident he "can be of value" to Jonas Vingegaard after return from lengthy injury layoff

When Steven Kruijswijk crashed out of the 2022 Tour de France whilst helping Jumbo-Visma teammate Jonas Vingegaard to the yellow jersey he suffered some heavy. Now after a winter spent rehabbing and recuperating, he's ready to once again aid his leader's quest for Yellow.

“I spent a lot of time at home and had to rehabilitate. Then you can handle a lot of things. That is just a very annoying period, but you have to look ahead. So that's what I did," says Kruijswijk to WielerFlits about his winter after suffering a broken collarbone, dislocated shoulder and a broken shoulder blade. “I had to recover from those fractures for a long time and I had to do quite a lot of rehabilitation before my shoulder was 100% again. It is still not perfect, but at least I can race with it.”

Returning to action for the first time since stage 15 of the 2022 Tour, Kruijswijk was once again by Vingegaard's side as the Dane dominated at Gran Camiño. No risks were taken by Jumbo-Visma as the Dutchman was withdrawn after the penultimate stage with Kruijswijk saying "I have laid a good foundation and made the planning with the team mainly towards this summer.”

“The ambitions of the team come first, I know that. But if the opportunity arises where I can show something of myself, I will do it," he continues. “But if I can ride a Tour like I did last year, I had a very good level in the run-up, then I get a lot of satisfaction from that. If I can be of value to Jonas. That is also the aim this year, that I can be of great value in defending his title in the Tour.”