Thymen Arensman turns Giro d'Italia around with stupendous time-trial: "I didn't expect it to go so well today"

Thymen Arensman had a horrible starting day at the Giro d'Italia and also shed time on stage 2. Together with his dad criticizing INEOS on X - who has since deleted his account - it seemed as if the Dutchman's Giro was hanging by a thread. However he is turning it around, and in yesterday's time-trial he soared up the GC as he was the second best GC contender.

“The time trial goes so fast that it doesn't feel good for anyone. Apparently I was going very fast, but I didn't feel good at all," Arensman told Eurosport following his effort. "The result is of course nice. I didn't expect it to go so well today. So that is a nice prospect for the rest of the Giro.” INEOS finished second, third and fourth on the day but Geraint Thomas lost more time than expected on his main rivals.

As for Arensman, he was fourth on the day directly behind Filippo Ganna and Magnus Sheffield. He finished 59 seconds slower than Tadej Pogacar, but this meant minutes of gain over many rivals - some of which lost over 4 or 5 minutes. Arensman rose from 26th to 11th with this effort, only 25 seconds away from the Top10 where Lorenzo Fortunato is the nearest.

The Dutchman continues to have a secondary role in the team led by Geraint Thomas, but with his increasing form, his role could change over the coming weeks. “Big compliments to the team. We are currently top 3. The staff has made three different reconnaissance collections. It's nice to see those good times from our team as a result of that," he concluded.