The group remained largely together for the first 50 kilometres into the stage. At that point, Steven Kruijswijk realised that he could have a chance.
“I decided to attack on the first long climb of the day,” he explained. “I was planning to try something today and I was feeling good. Behind me, a chasing group full of good climbers arose, but they didn’t work together so well. That’s why I chose to hold my own pace.”

Time trial
Sports Director Jan Boven encouraged his rider to hang on until the top. “It was restless behind Steven,” Boven said. “We chose to wait for a chasing group on the descent. He hoped that together they would get more space, but they didn’t, unfortunately. At that moment, we knew that Steven had to ride an uphill time trial to the finish on Capitello Matese. He gave his maximum.”

“I had to push as hard as I could to have a chance,” Kruijswijk continued. “I was hoping that they were going to fall apart behind me, but I broke! That’s a pity, but I thought that this was the way for me to win a stage. And I wasn’t far off in the end. I know that reaching the top ten in the general classification is almost impossible and that’s why I want to attack and try to grab a stage victory. I feel that I’m good enough for that and I’m going to try it another time, next week, for sure.”

Unpredictable
Sunday’s stage will come too early for Kruijswijk to repeat his effort. “But Martijn Keizer can do it this time, possibly,” Boven added. “It’s going to be a hard stage again. Don’t underestimate the mountains on Sunday’s profile. The main overall riders will decide if a breakaway has a chance to make it or not. Today they rode very aggressively. It’s unpredictable, but we are going to try it another time, anyway.”