Thymen Arensman and the fight against himself in Giro opener: "I really wanted to go home, I was so disappointed"

“These first two days of the Giro have mostly been a learning experience, I think,” he began. “It’s really been a battle with myself. I don’t know if I’d call it trauma, but… when you start thinking you can’t do it, it becomes a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy, if I can say it that way in English.”

“I think that’s really what’s going on. I get in my own head and want it so badly… and then it just doesn’t work out,” Arensman continued. “It sounds dramatic to say ‘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 it happened.”

“But I’m mostly just relieved that stage is behind me,” he added. “It was really hard to pick myself up again, but I tried to just enjoy being here and not take it too seriously. When I woke up, the sun was still shining, to put it that way. It’s really not the end of the world, even though I was incredibly disappointed. You can’t just go home, even if that’s all you want in the moment. That’s not an option. So now, I’ve given everything again. Hopefully it only gets better from here.”

“I’m just glad that first stage is behind me,” said Thymen Arensman, who, just like the previous two years, lost time in the first serious uphill stage of the Giro. “I did everything I possibly could to prepare for that stage, and maybe that’s what made me so nervous. I couldn’t stop overthinking it, and then it starts messing with your head.”

“I really wanted to go home, that’s how disappointed I was. But I see it as a process, and every time I go through it, I can only improve. It’ll have its ups and downs, but from here on, I hope this Giro only gets better,” he concluded.

Team director Zak Dempster already preached calm on Friday in a chat with IDLProCycling.com. “Of course Thymen was disappointed. He wanted to hang in there, but he also needs to shift his focus back to the time trial and everything that comes with it. It’s only day one of the Giro, and we can’t change what’s already happened.”

“We believe strongly in Thymen,” Dempster added. “He’s shown many times that he’s incredibly strong in the third week of a grand tour. When I look at how hard that final week is, I don’t think we need to worry about those 95 seconds right now.”