"The question is still: what are our goals for this Tour?" - Steven Kruijswijk reveals Visma uncertainty surrounding Tour de France after Jonas Vingegaard's crash
Cycling
With much uncertainty surrounding the Team Visma | Lease a Bike lineup for the 2024 Tour de France following bad crashes and injuries to a number of the team's star riders, Steven Kruijswijk is confident he be fully recovered at the startline and ready to perform at a top level.
“My shoulder and collarbone will always require attention due to the falls of recent years, but on the bike itself I no longer experience any problems. It also looks good in terms of form heading into the Tour," assesses the 36-year-old Dutchman, who has a podium finish to his name at the Tour de France, in conversation with Wielerflits. “I am happy to have achieved a podium finish in the 2019 Tour de France, when Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard were not yet participating. Because the level of those boys and Remco Evenepoel, for example, is a lot higher than what I had at the time.”
A loyal servant of the Team Visma | Lease a Bike set-up, despite reaching the autumn of his career and the long list of injuries over recent seasons, Kruijswijk is confident in his current level. “According to the trainers and people who know about it within the team, I am back at the right level," he explains optimistically. "I may even be better than when I finished third in the Tour.”
And it is the Tour de France that is again, front and centre of the Dutchman's mind for the remainder of the 2024 season. “For me, the Tour is still the ultimate race in cycling, the Champions League final that you start in. This is what I started cycling for," he reveals. "Personally, I am most looking forward to the final week, because there are still very tough stages. Moreover, the third week always suits me. The Tour also ends, of course, almost on my doorstep, on my training routes. I hope to perform well there.”
On the state of his team leader, two-time back-to-back Tour de France winner, Jonas Vingegaard, Kruijswijk is also quietly optimistic that the Dane, who recently returned to training following a horror crash at the Itzulia Basque Country, will be able to challenge for a third successive Maillot Jaune. “I do have personal contact with him. He says he's feeling better and better," Kruijswijk says. "But it is very difficult to say at the moment whether he will make it to the Tour and how he will get to the Tour if he makes it.”
“For us as riders the question is still: what are our goals for this Tour? It is still uncertain. I don't think we can say until two weeks before the Tour: this is what we are going for. The team will of course come up with all kinds of scenarios in the meantime,” he concludes. “But I really hope that Jonas will be there. He deserves that.”
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- yeah, that’s a more fair assessment. “reaching mathieu’s level” doesn’t mean you’re planning to replicate his whole career. the former IS doable, potentially. it’s just the latter that likely is not.OCexile25-12-2024
- That’s not entirely true. Every person follows their own development path and peaks differently. Remco and Primoz had hardly started cycling before elite level. Jonas was pretty much under the radzr until he unexpectedly had to take over responsibility at JV. Some guys only get real good in their thirties others have peaked mid-twenties. You can’t tell in advance how and upto what level they will progress, obviously his career might not have MVDPs length but nothing says he could not end up doing a few seasons at his level.Mistermaumau25-12-2024
- well, del grosso is 21 right now. when mathieu was a year younger than that, he was already winning elite level world championships, not U23. i think del grosso will be a very good pro for years, but if he was really going to be the next van der poel someday, he’d already have to be at that level right NOW. van der poel was showing signs of true greatness when he was 15-16. THAT’S what generational talent looks like.OCexile25-12-2024
- Yeah.... gear 😅.mikolajjj24-12-2024
- It shouldn’t be about expectations in the first place should it? Besides, if you look at everyone’s calculations as a whole they don’t add up in the first place. There’ll be 2-3 riders with a 50% chance, a dozen with 10 or 20% and dozens more with a 5% so we’re expecting at least 2 if not 3 winners. Remind me again who won before her? Says it all about using data to decide on participation.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- Ok, happy I’m not too interested in this team coz’ the account of what happened is really hard to follow.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- The UCI is worse than USA CyclingVeganpotter24-12-2024
- It's not like they wanted her to not win😅 She had an outstanding Olympics. But there's a reason why she wasn't expected to win the road race and that's ok. Things like this happen and it's great...better than seeing expected winners win.Veganpotter24-12-2024
- Bruyneel ? The man with a lifetime ban from cycling...why do you keep giving him and his doper mate, Armstrong, a platform?DJ24-12-2024
- yeah, agree. on the subject of being a “complete rider,” i do think that’s getting more interesting. mathieu seems to have decided he wants to get much better at climbing the the high mountain passes. he appears to be looking for new challenges, which should be interesting to watch. in most cases you’d dismiss a goal like that at age 30, but it’s mvdp. he’s never going to climb with the real climbers, but if he can improve enough it could open up stage wins when the parcours isnt just purely toothy and punchy.OCexile24-12-2024