INEOS Grenadiers DS backs Thymen Arensman despite another poor start to a Grand Tour: "You also shouldn't underestimate how difficult a first stage can be"

While Egan Bernal sailed through the opening stage of Giro d'Italia without any problems, his co-leader Thymen Arensman lost the greatest amount of time of all the GC favourites (if we exclude Mikel Landa). For the 25-year-old, it's yet another blow for his ambitions after he had lost a shot at podium last year during the opening weekend too.

"Thymen is a solid rider for the third week and of course it wasn't the plan to lose time, but the next day the sun will rise again," thinks Ineos DS Zak Dempster. "And the way I see it: it's less than last year. Not too bad," he laughs a bit bitterly in an interview with In de Leiderstrui.

It's far from desired start for a man who secretely aims for a Grand Tour podium. "Of course Thymen was disappointed. He wanted to hang on to it, but he also just has to focus on the time trial and the whole process that comes with it. It's only one day of this Giro and there's not much we can do about it."

"You also shouldn't underestimate how difficult a first stage can be," Dempster explains. "You see how small the front group is (36 riders, ed.) and Sunday will be another difficult stage. After returning to Italy it will be a bit more sprinting and we will get back into the routine of the Giro. 1 down, 20 to go."

It's for a second year in a row Arensman loses a substantial amount of time during the opening weekend. "Of course we looked at it, but it would be crazy not to, right? We look at the strengths and weaknesses of each rider, with the aim of improving as much as possible. We can analyse until we're blue in the face and go cry in a corner, but I repeat: we'll just pick up the focus for the time trial again."

Isn't it maybe time to turn over the page and focus on GC with another rider? Not for INEOS Grenadiers. "We believe very much in Thymen and he has shown many times that he is a very good rider in the third week," Dempster concludes. "When I look at the last week and see how difficult it is, I don't think we should worry about the 95 seconds now."