Thymen Arensman reflects on an encouraging opening week at the Giro d’Italia

He sits sixth overall on the second rest day, and Thymen Arensman took the time for an extended press conference. In it, the Dutchman looked back on the nine stages of this Giro d’Italia, but also glanced ahead. How will his Netcompany INEOS team move forward now that Egan Bernal has already lost some time?

“I think everything is under control and we’ve ridden a few really nice stages with the boys,” the Dutchman began in his long answer after the first nine stages. “We’re enjoying ourselves and trying to do the right things every day, and I think that really helps me. Of course, there is stress at times, but we try not to have too much stress, we make some jokes with the guys, we keep things light.”

That was also the case on the Blockhaus stage, where he was already well placed. “It was a very long stage and honestly I had hoped for a slightly harder run-in. Of course, after six hours you’re not fresh at the bottom, but everyone was still reasonably fresh, and I had hoped for a bit more fatigue. Even so, I delivered a super good performance, I really gave it my best and I can genuinely be proud of my ride.”

Two days later, Arensman came over the top in fourth place on the summit finish. “To be honest, it was a bit similar to Blockhaus. I did my absolute best, and the team did fantastic work all day. They made everything smooth and put me in the perfect position. I know they just want me to do my absolute best, as I always try to do, but you still want to give something back to the guys because they do such great work, and that gives me extra motivation.”

Even so, the Dutchman admitted: “I hesitated a little too long when Felix [Gall, ed.] and Jonas [Vingegaard, ed.] went, because in hindsight I might have been better off joining in and I was a bit too eager, but it’s easy to say that afterwards. I’m still proud of my performance. I gave everything I could.”

The obvious question remains: what now for his team, which has already seen Bernal lose minutes? “Egan is a really big help. It is very nice to share leadership with him,” Arensman seemed to suggest that nothing has changed. “He is a Giro winner, so he is a real top rider. I’m also still learning from him, for example how to fight for the top spots in the general classification. He has that experience and he can help me with that.”

The Dutchman had more praise in store for his Colombian teammate: “He’s just a real fighter in the peloton and on the bike, and super relaxed off it. He knows when to switch on and when to switch off, and I think that’s super important in a Grand Tour. He has that experience and I can, in a way, take something from that, draw on his experience.”

On Tuesday, a very important day follows for Arensman. We already wrote about where he stands compared to the competition, but how does he see the time trial himself? “I think you never really look forward to a time trial, because you know it’s going to be incredibly hard! So today I’m just trying not to think about it, to relax a bit and have a nice cup of coffee.”

“I think it’s quite simple,” the Dutchman continued. “If I can execute this whole process perfectly, then it is something to look forward to, but if people are really stressed about the time trial, then it is not something you look forward to. But I just think it is really cool to ride a time trial in the Giro, right? That makes it fun, I think.”