Peloton sees Kruijswijk as Giro winner

ANDOLO, Italy (VN) — No one pegged Steven Kruijswijk as a winner of the 2016 Giro d’Italia, but with five stages to go, everyone inside the peloton agrees it’s the LottoNL – Jumbo rider’s pink jersey to lose.

“[Kruijswijk] hasn’t shown any weakness yet,” said Orica – GreenEdge sport director Matt White. “He’s the strongest guy here. Unless he shows a weakness between here and Sunday, he’ll be the winner of the Giro.”

That near-universal consensus was reconfirmed in Tuesday’s short, explosive stage that saw the GC favorites taking potshots at each other right from the gun, but it was Kruijswijk who stomped the hardest.

The Dutch climber smothered attacks from stage-winner Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) early in the stage, and then gapped podium rival Esteban Chaves (Orica – GreenEdge) to finish second for the third consecutive stage to widen his maglia rosa lead to 3:00.

At the line, Valverde out-kicked Kruijswijk and fellow attacker Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) to win the stage, and bounced into third overall at 3:23 ahead of Nibali, who faltered on the day’s last climb to sink to fourth at 4:43. With only two difficult mountain stages left, Valverde joined the growing chorus that this Giro could be painted in orange.

“He’s looking very strong, and it will be difficult to knock him out,” Valverde said. “From what we saw today, Kruijswijk is clearly the …

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