Steven Kruijswijk: The 2016 Giro, Tour podium and 17 years with one team

For 17 years, Steven Kruijswijk has known only one professional home.

From Rabobank to Blanco, Belkin, LottoNL-Jumbo, Jumbo-Visma and now Visma | Lease a Bike, the names on the jersey have changed, as have the riders, staff and ambitions around him. Kruijswijk, however, has remained an ever-present.

Domestiquespoke with the Dutchman ahead of his 24th and final Grand Tour, the 2026 Vuelta a España, to discuss not only the race and reflect on his career to date, but also the pride of being a one-team rider.

"I think it's pretty rare for a cyclist to have always been in the same environment, same team," Kruijswijk tells Domestique. "In the end, yes, I'm proud." 

Having spent three years with the development team, Kruijswijk signed as a professional with Rabobank in 2010. Staying with the Dutch team for his whole career was not something Kruijswijk had set out to achieve, but in his early years he believed in what the team could become.

"I think, especially in my early years as a cyclist, when I was really chasing my own results for GC, and that period of being a Grand Tour rider, I think at that moment, I really trusted the management that they could really grow as a team."

His belief was eventually rewarded. The organisation developed from a team dreaming of winning Grand Tours into one capable of dominating them, winning all three in 2023.

But that transformation did not happen overnight. What once felt like a distant ambition gradually became a realistic target as the team grew in size, budget and quality.

"At first, you make a step as a team, and it must have been 10 years ago; we spoke about wanting to win Grand Tours, where we really were at the bottom."

"But then, step by step, we grew, growing into a bigger team, more budget, better riders. We really had a good team to chase those goals."

By the time the organisation reached the level it had been working towards, the dynamics had changed. Winning a Grand Tour was no longer the ambition; it was the expectation.

"In the end, you see, now people expect to win the Grand Tours and Classics. So I think we set the bar high for ourselves, and that brings pressure through the team."

While the team was still discovering how far they could go, Kruijswijk was beginning to find out the same about himself. His early Giro d'Italia appearances offered promising signs of his potential, finishing eighth overall in 2011 before improving to seventh in 2015. 

His ability to thrive in the third week suggested he had the endurance required to become a serious Grand Tour contender. But it was not until 2016 that he began to believe it could become a reality.

"The first time for me when I really started believing I could compete at a good level for GC was, of course, the Giro 2016, when I was in a good position to win the race."

Merijn Zeeman was an important figure in that progression, working closely with Kruijswijk as he began to test the limits of what he could achieve.

"Especially at that time, with Merijn Zeeman, who was my personal coach as well and trainer. Yeah, we were pushing myself to the limit."

The 2016 Giro remains synonymous with Kruijswijk's career, the race that prompts the question of what might have been. 

When the race kicked off in the Netherlands, the Dutchman was not among the names dominating the pre-race conversation, with the likes of Vincenzo Nibali, Alejandro Valverde, Tom Dumoulin and Esteban Chaves on the start list.

That changed as the race moved into the mountains. Having quietly worked his way through the opening week, Kruijswijk emerged as the strongest climber in the field and took the maglia rosa at the end of stage 14. 

Four stages later, he had built a lead of more than three minutes over Chaves and Valverde, with Nibali almost five minutes behind. With two mountain stages remaining, the Giro was beginning to look like Kruijswijk's to lose.

Then came the infamous descent of the Colle dell'Agnello.

Kruijswijk had been able to follow Nibali and Chaves over the summit of the challenging climb, but everything changed on the opening section of the descent, when he crashed into a bank of snow. 

A damaged bike and delayed bike change compounded his problems and, despite a brave chase, he eventually slipped to third overall. 

"I made a stupid mistake. I made a wrong move and crashed in that wall of snow," a devastated Kruijswijk said in the immediate aftermath.

A small rib fracture was diagnosed in hospital that evening, but Kruijswijk returned to the start the following morning. He battled through the penultimate stage, only to lose another place to Valverde and finish the Giro fourth overall.

Yet the significance of the 2016 Giro meant more to the Dutchman than the result alone. Looking back a decade later, Kruijswijk identified it as the first time he genuinely believed a Grand Tour podium was within his reach. 

"That made me realise, okay, it's a possibility for me to really get on the podium of Grand Tours, which was always my dream."

A decade on, there is still disappointment in what happened, but Kruijswijk can also look back on that edition of the Giro with pride. 

"Of course, I would have loved to win the Giro, and I think it was within the possibilities, but, yeah, as I said before, it's a three-week race, everything has to come together, and you have to be there until the end."

More than anything, the experience left Kruijswijk with something to prove. He did not want the Giro crash to be the defining memory of his Grand Tour career.

"I think also, just missing out on that Giro, winning or podium, made me realise I really wanted something to remember."

Just over three years later, he had something to remember.

Following the 2016 Giro, Kruijswijk suffered back-to-back abandons at the Vuelta a España and the following Giro before bouncing back with ninth place at the 2017 Vuelta.

The 2018 season offered further evidence that he was closing in on the level required to challenge for a Grand Tour podium. He finished fifth at the Tour, before narrowly missing out again at the Vuelta, where he took fourth.

By 2019, the pieces finally came together. Kruijswijk arrived at the Tour as a genuine contender and remained firmly in the fight throughout three weeks of racing.

It proved to be a wide-open edition of the Tour, and heading into the final mountain stage the Dutchman sat fourth overall, 1:23 from the yellow jersey and just twelve seconds from the podium.

He ultimately usurped race standout Julian Alaphilippe on the final climb to Val Thorens, to finish third overall behind Egan Bernal and Geraint Thomas, finally delivering the Grand Tour podium that had seemed within his grasp three years earlier. Naturally, he considers his form across the 2019 Tour to be the best period of his career.

“That ended up in 2019 with the Tour podium, which I think was my best result and also my best form.”

The result was the product of years of hard work, setbacks and persistence. The Giro had shown Kruijswijk that a Grand Tour podium was possible; three years later, he had proved it.

“I think the third place in the Tour a few years later was a lot of hard work and dedication.”

As the team became increasingly equipped to challenge for Grand Tours, Kruijswijk found himself moving into a different role within the same ambitions he had once pursued for himself.

Kruijswijk's 2021 season was another reminder of the unpredictability of Grand Tour racing. He was forced to abandon the Tour with illness, but returned later in the season to support Primož Roglič, who had also abandoned the Tour, at the Vuelta, helping the Slovenian to a third consecutive victory.

The following year, that supporting role became even more significant as he lined up alongside Roglič and Jonas Vingegaard at the Tour. By then, Vingegaard had emerged as a genuine Grand Tour leader, having finished second twelve months earlier. 

Kruijswijk's role was clear, helping Vingegaard wherever he could in the mountains, and he still felt capable of playing an important part in the team's bid for Tour glory.

“I think I was physically still in a really strong place, because just before Jonas won the Tour for the first time, also where I crashed in the end, I think my level was quite good. And I think I could continue like that for a few more years as a really important helper in the mountains.”

On stage 11, one of the most iconic in modern tour history, he was part of the Jumbo-Visma group that isolated Tadej Pogačar, helping Vingegaard move into the yellow jersey and take a decisive step towards his first Tour victory.

It was a significant moment in the history of the team, but just four days later, Kruijswijk's own Tour would be over. The Dutchman was involved in a crash on stage 15 alongside Vingegaard. 

While the race leader was able to resume the stage and eventually seal the yellow jersey in Paris the following week, Kruijswijk ended up in the back of an ambulance, his race over. 

The setback was particularly frustrating because Kruijswijk still believed he had several productive years ahead of him. Instead, a series of crashes kept interrupting his attempts to return, giving him hurdles to overcome both physically and mentally.

“Unfortunately, I had a few bad crashes, which cost me two, three years really to recover from, because every time I came back, I had to start again.”

In 2023, a crash at the Critérium du Dauphiné left him with fractures to his clavicle and pelvis and ruled him out of the Tour. A year later, he crashed again at the same race and once more missed the Tour.

For Kruijswijk, the timing made the setbacks harder to accept. He knew that at his age, there was no longer the same scope for improvement that there had been earlier in his career.

“I can make a comeback, but it won’t be the same as it was before, because I knew also on the inside, yeah, it has to be realistic. I’m getting older. I had a few moments when I really thought, maybe it’s enough.”

What kept him going was the desire to race without another setback getting in the way.

“I wanted to do a few years without crashes or bad luck, you know, just racing itself, which I love to do.”

“As it looks now in the last few years, I’ve been enjoying myself. It was pretty smooth, I think, and I want to close it off like that.”

As the end of his career approaches, Kruijswijk has learned to appreciate things differently.

“When you achieve something, when you get a result, try to enjoy it, because it’s not every day you get a good result in a race.”

“Sometimes you forget to enjoy it that much that you’re already thinking ahead to the next race.”

"Sometimes, especially now, you see how much dedication and so much work, training and focus you've put in. Sometimes you have to put it on hold, enjoy it, and then move forward again."

Perhaps that perspective has become more important as his own career has drawn towards its end. At 39, there is no next season to prepare for.

Instead, there is one final Vuelta a España, and then a life beyond professional racing.

“I think that’s what I learned the last few years: to enjoy it.”