Steven Kruijswijk showed his courage another time in the Italian mountains after his brave performance on Saturday. The leader of Team LottoNL-Jumbo ignored the pain in his legs to chase Paolo Tiralongo (Astana) for second place in San Giorgio del Sannio.

“I wasn’t planning to attack again”, Kruijswijk said. “I was aiming for the mountain jersey a little bit, so I thought to try something later on in the stage. After half an hour of riding, I felt quite good actually. That’s why I chose to attack again. Of course I was a little slowed down by yesterday’s effort, I felt less explosive, and so I wasn’t able to participate in the mountain sprints.”

Sports Director Jan Boven wasn’t surprised at all with Kruijswijk’s performance.

“We knew that he had good preparation,” said Boven. “He’s in good form. He was planning to try something at a later moment in the stage, but he proved to be sharp from the beginning.

“It looked like the breakaway wasn’t able to hold on for a long time. The gap didn’t grow more than five minutes. Afterwards, the pack with the overall riders slowed down. Steven wasn’t feeling good anymore and saved his energy in the rest of the stage, waiting for the top of the last climb.”

“I reached my maximum in the final kilometres,” Kruijswijk added. “I wasn’t the only one who was tired in the end. Unfortunately, second place in the day was the highest possibility at that moment, but I didn’t expect to reach that before the day.

“My legs and my back were hurting, so I had to rely on my mental strength. I’m tough enough for that. Hopefully I’m able to grab a stage victory this Giro, because I’m good enough for it.”

Kruijswijk will be able to recover from his hard weekend on Monday.

“The rest day is welcome for us,” Boven added. “It’s been a very tough first week. I haven’t seen that often in a grand tour.

“The day after the rest day is flat. That will give us the chance to work for Moreno Hofland again. Steven can use it as an extra day to recover.”