Steven Kruijswijk made a big jump in the general classification of the Tour of Britain Aviva today. The Dutchman finished sixth on the fifth stage, the queen stage, and moved up to ninth overall.

Wout Poels won the stage. The Dutch Team Sky rider is one second away from the overall lead, which Edvald Boasson Hagen of MTN-Qhubeka holds. The Norwegian finished second.

Kruijswijk was the first to attack on Hartside Fell, a 400-metre high mountain. Poels and Hagen joined him, but the Dutchman had to let go of the two in the final 1.5 kilometres.

“I knew the climb wasn’t very heavy in terms of gradients,” Kruijswijk said. “As I’m not the most explosive rider, I had to do something early on to make it a hard race. When the boys bridged to me, the wind was harsh and I could not quite recover from my effort. When Poels and Hagen accelerated, I couldn’t follow. Maybe I should’ve attacked a little later, but tactically my early acceleration was a logical move.”

Nico Verhoeven
“Steven did what he had to do,” Sports Director Nico Verhoeven explained.  “Bram [Tankink, ed.] dropped Steven off at the front in time for the final ascent. On the climb, it became a cat-and-mouse game.

“It is unfortunate that Steven finished in the second group, if he had been able to finish a little ahead of the group, he would’ve come close to the podium.”

‘Ardennes stage’
On Friday, the pack heads from of Stoke-on-Trent to Nottingham, 192.7 kilometres. Throughout the day, the road will either go goes up or down.

“It will be a tough day,” Kruijswijk said. “Tomorrow’s stage looks like a Ardennes stage. We’ll see if we can mix in for the stage victory.”