Thymen Arensman's dad blames Ineos' trainers for his son's underperformance: "The nicest thing about starting a GT is that no trainer can screw up a cyclist form anymore"

Before Thymen Arensman had even reached the finish line of a disappointing stage 1 at the Giro d’Italia, the Dutchman’s father Martijn Arensman had already made his anger clear on social media as he questioned the work of Ineos Grenadiers’ trainers ahead of the race.

"The nicest thing about starting a GT is that no trainer can screw up a cyclist form anymore for the next three weeks," Arensman Sr wrote on X. "Hopefully it won’t be too screwed up for now."

Arensman eventually crossed the line in 47th, losing more than two minutes, taking a solid blow to his GC ambitions. The Dutchman started as a backup Ineos' back-up leader in Italy, but with this timelag, combined with a hard stage coming up tomorrow, this may as well spell the end to Arensman's classification efforts at Giro d'Italia.

Yet his team still believes in the 24-year-old: "I could see that he was at the back of the group when we hit the penultimate climb and I said on the radio that it looked like he was heading back a bit," teammate Magnus Sheffield added, speaking to GCN after the stage. "But I think Thymen is a fighter so he just needed to continue on his pace."