After mental issues, now questions about Arensman’s bowlegs during time trial: “Doesn’t look fast at all”

The INEOS Grenadiers rider spoke candidly about his thoughts after the disappointing opening stage. Speaking to IDLProCycling.com, he said: “It sounds heavy when you talk about demons in your head, but it’s really hard to stay calm when you’re fighting yourself. I was so nervous for that first stage, that’s why.”

In the time trial, Arensman clocked the 15th-fastest time, around the same as his main rivals. In the overall classification, however, the rider from Gelderland sits in 40th place, just over two minutes behind race leader Mads Pedersen (Lidl–Trek). After the opening days in Albania, Arensman has naturally been a talking point in the Dutch cycling world, not only because of his mental challenges, but also due to questions surrounding his movement and riding form.

During Arensman’s time trial, his protruding left leg was already being noticed. While few questions were raised at the time, analysts Jip van den Bos and Thijs Zonneveld revisited the issue on the talk show In de Waaier. “He rode an okay time trial on Saturday,” said Zonneveld. “It wasn’t great, but also not terrible. Just look at his left leg. In 2025, you’ll see a big difference compared to 2024.”

The former continental pro further explained his observations. “The left leg comes out really far. There seems to be something that’s changed in his movement, causing him to have even more of a bowlegged position on the bike, and his left leg kicks outward. He didn’t have that last year. It doesn’t look fast at all.”

What’s causing Arensman to suddenly show these traits remains unclear, although there are possible explanations. Zonneveld: “He has it on the road bike as well, and it seems to have gotten worse there too. So maybe he’s sitting a bit lower, which causes the leg to move outward. Or maybe it’s something that has gradually crept in during training, something that appears under high pressure or deep fatigue. If I were his trainer, coach, or aerodynamics expert, I’d definitely want to take a closer look at this.”

On the Kop over Kop podcast by Eurosport, the mental challenges surrounding Arensman were once again discussed. While much has already been said and written about it, former pro rider Lars van den Berg shared that Arensman has struggled with mental pressure since his younger years.

“In the youth categories, he already put a lot of pressure on himself and had a hard time when things didn’t go well. You could tell that even as a kid, he felt a lot of pressure. I rode with him in the Tour de l’Avenir, people expected him to win that year because he had already finished second behind Tadej Pogacar (in 2018). You could see even then that he was having a hard time dealing with that pressure.”

Van den Berg finds the current situation of his former teammate quite sad. “I honestly think it’s a really unfortunate situation, because you can see he’s really struggling with it. It’s not often in sports that someone puts so much pressure on themselves and then things just don’t work out.”