Thymen Arensman needs to work on his confidence: "As a top athlete there's nothing more annoying than struggling mentally to the point that it doesn't work out physically"

Thymen Arensman once again couldn't follow not only the best, but even the likes of Mads Pedersen on the opening stage of Giro d'Italia, losing valuable time towards the GC. On the Kop over Kop podcast, it is discussed that the 25-year-old's biggest enemy is his own mentality.

Lars van den Berg feels sorry for his former colleague: "You heard afterwards that it wasn't physical this time, but mainly mental. He just drove himself crazy."

"I think it's a sad situation. You can see that he's struggling with himself enormously and as a top athlete there's nothing more annoying than struggling mentally to the point that it doesn't work out physically. I think it's particularly sad."

According to Bobbie Traksel, the key lies with Arensman himself: "He puts the pressure on himself. If it had been a Belgian, I would have understood. There, the pressure in the press is much greater than with us. Of course we talk about him, because he is the Dutch hope in fearful days, but he puts that pressure on himself."

Jan Hermsen points out that he can't run away from that pressure at Grand Tour. Eventually, he'll have to face it again. "The moment he can ride on the podium, he also gets the jitters. The first problem was the physical one and that has been solved, but it also appears to be a mental problem. That has not been addressed."

He recalls last year's Giro, when Arensman finished 6th: "I also had the opportunity to interview him for three weeks in the Giro and the best interview was in Rome when everything was over. Then you see the nice guy Thymen Arensman, but for three weeks the steam comes out of his ears."

Van den Berg speaks from experience that these problems were already there at an early age for Arensman: "He makes it incredibly difficult for himself. I have seen him a lot in the youth and U23 category. In that youth category you could already see that he put a lot of pressure on himself and that he had a very hard time when things didn't go the way he wanted. But it wasn't like his father was shouting along the road or anything like that."

"I once did a Tour de l'Avenir with him. That was the year after he came second behind Pogacar and everyone expected him to win that year. We had a very strong Dutch team with us and you could tell that he was really struggling with that," said the ex-pro.

Hermsen thinks Arensman is not confident enough in his own abilities: "When he won that stage in the Tour of the Alps, it was great. But in the first interview he gives the day after, he says that Michael Storer is better than he is at that moment. Remco Evenepoel had never given such an interview. The doubt is there when he is at his peak. Then he has the idea that other riders are better. Tom Dumoulin also suffered from that a bit."