"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

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.”