Steven Kruijswijk slid behind two places, to 10th overall, in the Giro d'Italia’s classification today on the Piancavallo summit finish. Team LottoNL-Jumbo's leader let go his nearest rivals and placed 30th behind stage winner Mikel Landa.

"I did not have a good day,” said Steven Kruijswijk. "After yesterday, I thought I was fine. I did not really see this one coming. In the final, I was on my limit. I had to ride my own pace quickly and that was way too early.

"I felt good during the stage, but on the climb, I knew that it was not the same as yesterday.”

On the final 15-kilometre climb to Piancavallo, Kruijswijk drifted backwards. Bob Jungels and Adam Yates moved ahead.

The stage was hard from the gun. Kruijswijk and others, including Tom Dumoulin in the pink jersey, were caught off guard and forced to ride hard to close a split. Jurgen Van den Broeck did much muscle work.

"We missed the battle with a number of other teams. We had to fix that and we came back on the climb midway through the day. That's what the guys did well, but we lost some energy there. I expected it to be a war on the final climb and not beforehand, but that's cycling. "

"It looked good at the start of the final climb," added the Sports Director Addy Engels. "We did not see it coming when he was dropped. He was improving in the last few days and we thought he’d keep going in that direction.

"The start of the stage was a moment of inattention. If there are three descents, you know that you have to be at the sharp end. It was clear after Dumoulin's statements that Vincenzo Nibali and Nairo Quintana would attack him at every moment. Fortunately, we had the boys to solve it. It was also good for Dumoulin, because he had no one there anymore."