Kruijswijk to miss Vuelta a Espana due to upcoming surgery

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Steven Kruijswijk will not ride the Vuelta a Espana this year. The Belkin rider must undergo surgery in late September on his femoral artery and it would not be possible for him to put in the good performance he would like, he said.

Another Dutch rider who will miss the Vuelta is Koen de Kort of Argos-Shimano.

Kruijswijk had surgery on this same artery five years ago, but has now again developed a kink in the artery and narrowing of the veins. "It's not nice, but I was relieved when the research recently showed that this problem is the reason for the disappointing results," he told De Telegraaf.

“Two years ago I could stay with the best ten climbers at the Giro. This year, no more. I want the again have the chance to bring that last ten or fifteen percent to be among the best. With his problem that won't happen. That made the decision easier.”

He will keep on racing, though. “Instead of the Vuelta, I will be at the start of the races in Canada: the Tour of Alberta, Quebec GC and Montreal GC. Here I will close my season as well as possible and try to the maximum out,” he wrote on his website.

De Kort rode both the Giro di Italia and the Tour de France this year, as an important part of the sprint train for John Degenkolb, who won a stage at the Giro, and Marcel Kittel, who won four stages at the Tour.

Although he was named on Argos-Shimano's long list for the Vuelta, the team has already decided not to take him. “They would rather that I concentrate on the important one-day races,” he told De Telegraaf.