Steven Kruijswijk has climbed into the top ten in the Tour de Suisse. The 31-year-old leader of Team LottoNL-Jumbo was eighth in the stage to Arosa and now holds the same position in the overall standings. 

The one hundred and seventy kilometre long stage evolved in a traditional way with an early breakaway including Team LottoNL-Jumbo’s Enrico Battaglin and Koen Bouwman. In the peloton Steven Kruijswijk was brought in an ideal position for the ascent of the final climb by Tom Leezer, Bert-Jan Lindeman and Maarten Wynants. Kruijswijk attacked a number of times, but couldn’t get away. After this, he was still well assisted by both Bouwman and Battaglin.

“I’m happy with how it went today”, Kruijswijk said. “The feeling was good, though you always hope to do better. It’s a good step towards the Tour. The guys worked really well today and brought me to the final climb in the best possible position. That was a very important moment.”

Sports director Addy Engels concurred with his leader. “It was a good day for us. We intended to be in the breakaway today and we succeeded, first with Enrico, later on Koen joined. We tried to get as far as possible with the two, while the others supported Stevie really well. He was brought to the final climb in a perfect position. As a result, he was with Porte and Quintana from the beginning. For Steven, eighth was the best possible result today. He gave everything he had. The others were stronger today.”