Thymen Arensman names the key Giro d’Italia takeaways: ‘I can make that up next week!’

Thymen Arensman delivered his best performance in a Grand Tour, finishing fourth in the Giro d’Italia. The 26-year-old Dutchman bit into the race for three weeks, having already finished sixth twice before. Thanks to a stoic approach, good form and rock-solid support from Netcompany INEOS, he now came away with fourth place. In de Leiderstrui spoke to Arensman on the final day in Rome.

Arensman looked relaxed when he entered the mixed zone in the Italian capital. Although the tall climber had slipped from third to fourth in the standings over the previous two days, the conclusions at Eurosport and from us sounded the same. “The time trial with Filippo Ganna on day ten was definitely a highlight, the 1-2, that is something to be proud of,” he said among other things.

Asked whether he had surprised himself in certain areas, there was a brief pause. “Hmm, good question. I do not know whether I surprised myself, but I am very happy that I performed at a very high level for three weeks. I did not really have a bad day, and when I had to be there, I was there. I delivered my performance every single day.”

And of course, that was not always the case in the past. Arensman used to lose time in the first week of a Grand Tour and then come through in the third week. This time his first week was spotless, just like his second. And so he went into week three as number three. “I am very proud of the steps I have taken,” Arensman said.

Fourth place was clearly the highest possible result, with Jai Hindley of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe simply proving a little stronger in the final mountain stages. There was therefore no sign of disappointment from Arensman. “Bit by bit, the pieces are falling into place more and more, and it is nice to be able to show that here. I can be very satisfied with it.”

Did he also have bad moments over the 21 days that we may not have noticed on TV? “When you ride for the general classification, you put on a poker face every day. It is 21 days of riding as hard as possible, but I did not really have moments when I was truly terrible or anything like that. You have to be there every day, and some days you feel better than others.”

“But when I wanted to be there, the body responded well enough. That allowed me to produce a good performance,” said a happy Arensman, who is getting to know himself better every year. “That is in nutrition, but also in all sorts of other aspects. I have learned a lot and taken all of that with me, but it still is not easy to do that for three or four weeks.”

Fourth place can also mean podium level, right? That is a Dutch way of looking at it, but Arensman was happy to go along with that. “I was riding in a podium position for a very long time. As I always say: I do my very best, and there are so many things you cannot control. If a few things fall a little better, then it can happen one day.”

People should not underestimate how impressive it is that Arensman has already recorded his fourth big top-10 finish in a Grand Tour. Alongside the poker face, he had to give up a lot in recent months. “If all your teammates are eating Nutella, then as a GC rider you just cannot do that. But I can make that up next week, haha!”

Bram van der Ploeg ( X: @BvdPloegg | email : [email protected])