Steven Kruijswijk maintained his fourth position in the general classification of the Giro d’Italia with an aggressive ride during the final kilometres of stage 11 to Asolo. Diego Ulissi (Lampre - Merida) won the stage and LottoNL-Jumbo’s Enrico Battaglin finished eighth.

Kruijswijk and Battaglin both said before the stage that they were approaching it as an important one. Kruijswijk wanted to attack and Battaglin aimed for stage victory – they did so. “Enrico was thinking about this stage for a while and he proved to be right,” Sports Director Addy Engels said. “The eighth place was the best possible for him today. The three riders who stayed in front of the peloton were too strong today. Enrico wasn’t able to follow Ulissi.”

Ulissi bridged to Bob Jungels (Etixx - Quick Step) and Andrey Amador (Movistar) from the chasing group in the final part of the stage. Kruijswijk attacked on top of the final climb and made sure that only nine riders maintained their positions in front of the race.

Test myself

“I wanted to test myself,” Kruijswijk explained. “Besides that, it was important for me to start the descent in front of the group. I had a good day, but wasn’t able to follow Jungels and Amador unfortunately. They broke away quite easily and when I tried to react to them, Valverde caught me. It wasn’t worth it to go on afterwards.”

Risks

Just before the final part of the stage, many riders crashed but Team LottoNL-Jumbo escaped harm. “We were in front of the peloton with the whole team at that moment,” Engels continued. “That says something about the level of the team. There are always risks, but when you ride like this, those risks are minimised.”

On Thursday, the riders are facing a completely flat stage. “I’m counting on a bunch sprint,” Engels added. “The final part of the race is very technical and they’re predicting rain, so those factors are making it a little tricky.”