Interview | Kruijswijk's withdrawal "big blow" for Jumbo-Visma: "We won't be weaker with Kelderman"

Jumbo-Visma is licking its wounds following Steven Kruijswijk's withdrawal from the Tour de France. The experienced Dutch rider crashed on Monday, during the second stage of the Dauphiné, and sustained multiple fractures. In an interview with IDLProCycling.com, performance coach Mathieu Heijboer explains just how hard the news has hit Kruijswijk and the Jumbo-Visma Tour team, especially now that they have Wilco Kelderman, an experienced, motivated and excellent replacement ready to step in.

"To call the situation frustrating would be an understatement. This is a huge blow for Steven personally, and also for the team," begins Heijboer, thereby echoing Kruijswijk's initial reaction, in which the rider came across as disillusioned. "It's also really tough for our team because he has been involved in our Tour trajectory from the beginning. He spent three weeks with the group in the Sierra Nevada, and he was doing really well. He trained hard and reached a good level."

Kruijswijk's history makes the current situation even more dramatic. Since his impressive third-place finish in the Tour in 2019, it seems that misfortune has followed him around. In 2020, he also had to withdraw from the Tour due to a crash in the Dauphiné, and later he had to abandon the Giro d'Italia due to contracting COVID-19. Last year, he fractured his shoulder in the final week of the Tour, which meant he was unable to participate when Vingegaard brought the yellow jersey to Paris. "Last year, he was already out for a long time after that crash in the Tour, so on a personal level, this is a heavy blow for him. Now he has to miss it again. I briefly exchanged WhatsApp messages with him, and Merijn (Zeeman, ed.) spoke to him for a bit longer. Yes, he's truly devastated. This is traditionally the period when Steven reaches his peak form, starting from May. He has been working towards this goal the whole year, and now all of that goes down the drain."

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Kruijswijk was to play important role in Tour de France

Heijboer has been closely involved in the Tour preparation of Jumbo-Visma throughout the year. In July, Jonas Vingegaard is set to defend his title, and Kruijswijk was supposed to play a very important role in achieving that goal. Now that Vingegaard is the sole team leader and Primoz Roglic is staying home after winning the Giro d'Italia, the team's entire race strategy was built around having a strong climbing core to support the Danish leader. There is no shadow leader, not even now that Kruijswijk was reaching his peak form. "The idea has always been to position Jonas as the sole team leader, without Steven playing a role. Those first stages of the Tour are so tough that most teams already have a sense of the distribution of roles after those stages."

Nevertheless, Jumbo-Visma had high expectations for 35-year-old Kruijswijk, who could have supported his team leader deep into the finals in the high mountains. "Last year, we could see how good he was in the final weekend of the Dauphiné. He was actually at the same level now. We deliberately tried to keep him low-key in the first stages so that he could make a difference for Jonas in the final weekend of the Dauphiné. He was in excellent condition, all signs indicated that he would play a crucial role in the Dauphiné, but especially in the Tour."

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Kelderman will join Tour team as first replacement

However, accidents can happen at any moment, and Jumbo-Visma knows this all too well. In the week before the Giro, no less than four riders had to be replaced: three due to COVID-19 and one due to a crash during training. With Kelderman, the team was already prepared for such a scenario. After missing the Giro due to a crash in the Tirreno-Adriatico, in May Jumbo-Visma's winter acquisition joined the Tour team in the Sierra Nevada for altitude training. "Wilco is the intended successor," Heijboer immediately confirms. "That doesn't make us weaker," he adds - which is an understatement.

And yet, it wasn't without reason that Kelderman was not initially included in the Tour team when it was announced last December. "Wilco is a new rider in our team. The Tour team was already together last year, with the exception of Dylan van Baarle, and it's an incredibly strong group. So it was and is very beneficial that Wilco has been with us for the past three weeks," says Heijboer. He also sees another advantage in Kelderman's presence during the recent altitude training: "That was also intended as a good preparation for the Tour of Switzerland, where he can compete for a classification himself. Now it also works well towards the Tour, although Wilco's role was already to anticipate emergencies, knowing that they can always happen."

And so, Jumbo-Visma continues to build towards the Tour de France. Earlier this year, Kelderman already experienced what it's like to be sidelined from the team. "For Wilco, missing the Giro was a different situation because he had already crashed in the Tirreno in March. It wasn't clear whether he would make it to the Giro or not, so we supported him intensively throughout his rehabilitation process. At a certain point, it became increasingly clear that it would be difficult for him to reach the altitude training on Mount Teide, and consequently, the Giro as well. It was a gradual process leading to a difficult decision, unlike when someone like Steven suddenly falls to the ground and it's over in an instant."

Bram van der Ploeg (Twitter: @BvdPloegg)