“My morale was broken” – Steven Kruijswijk diagnosed with rib fracture after crash

Following on from his crash on today’s stage of the Giro d’Italia, Steven Kruijswijk has been diagnosed with a small rib fracture in addition to some other injuries.

Kruijswijk lost the Giro d’Italia’s leader’s pink jersey today due to his crash coming off the Colle dell’Agnello. The Team LottoNL-Jumbo rider ended up finishing 4-54 minutes behind stage winner Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) with Esteban Chavez (Orica – GreenEDGE) taking over the pink jersey.

The Dutch WorldTour team appeared to be in control as it has over the last three weeks. Kruijswijk was among the best climbers on the hardest climb of the race. “On the top of the Colle dell’Agnello, I was on my limit,” Kruijswijk said. “I wanted to eat and drink something, and followed the others.”

Not long after the start of the descent, Kruijswijk crashed. “I made a stupid mistake. I made a wrong move and crashed in that wall of snow. My bike was battered, and I wasn’t able to continue immediately.”

“After I started riding, everything hurt. I felt pain in my back and my ribs, and my morale was broken. I knew that I had lost time and tried to move on, but it was over. I lost my Giro today.”

Unfortunately for Kruijswijk, he was unable to change bikes quickly as his team car was held up behind.

“I was the first car behind Kruijswijk’s group, but we were not allowed to go ahead because of the dropped riders,” his Directeur Sportif Addy Engels said.

“We told him to go on with his old bike because we were not behind him. When we reached him, he said that he wanted to change bikes immediately.

“We kept on shouting for him. It was obvious that he was going to lose a lot of time, but tomorrow is another very hard stage. The way he kept on going today looked like he is still able to push on for tomorrow.”

However, his team have since provided the following update and it’s unclear as to whether he will be in a position to start tomorrow’s stage.

MEDICAL UPDATE @s_kruijswijk has a small rib fracture and is struggling with pains in his foot and side. New update, tomorrow morning.