Giro d’Italia: Ineos Grenadiers ‘wouldn’t put a lot of importance’ on Arensman father's tweet

Stage 1 of the Giro d’Italia was ostensibly a fantastic start to the race for Ineos Grenadiers. Their team leader Geraint Thomas performed strongly to limit minimal losses to Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Filippo Ganna performed above himself on the steep slopes surrounding Turin and Jhonatan Narváez produced the ride of the day to win the stage.

With the Ecuadorian sitting pretty in pink at the end of the day, all discussions surrounding the team should have been positive. But a slight blemish emerged in the form of a disgruntled post on X by Thymen Arensman’s father. The Dutchman struggled on the penultimate climb and came home over two minutes adrift of his leaders, to which his father expressed his disappointment.

“The nicest thing about starting a GT is that no trainer can [s]crew up a cyclist form anymore for the next three weeks,” Martijn Arensman wrote. “Hopefully it won’t be too screwed up for now.”

Giving the team’s first reaction to the post, which has subsequently been hidden by Arensman Sr - who has removed many of his followers and made his account private - sports director Zak Dempster spoke exclusively with GCN at the start of stage 2 in San Francesco al Campo.

“Personally I love my dad but I am pretty sure that I wouldn’t want all of his thoughts on social media at the end of the day,” reasoned Dempster.

“In terms of what was said, I wouldn’t put a lot of importance on it and I think it’s just a distraction if I’m honest. The main thing is that he feels that we’re behind him here on the race and all that it takes to prepare to do all the athletic performances that he does.”

Insisting that the team paid little attention to the controversy on Saturday evening, Dempster reiterated their desire to put an arm around the Dutch climber and reassure him that better things are to come at the Giro.

Read more: Thymen Arensman’s father lashes out at Ineos Grenadiers after Giro d’Italia disappointment

Ineos Grenadiers in good spirits after stage 1 success

The 24-year-old crossed the line in Turin 2:17 behind his teammate and stage winner Narváez, losing 2:21 to Pogačar in the process (with the addition of a four-second bonus on the line). Carrying a two-minute deficit to the likes of Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Damiano Caruso and Antonio Tiberi (both Bahrain Victorious) will have been another early blow to Arensman’s ambitions of improving on his sixth-place finish from last year’s race.

However, after taking some time to reflect on the team bus in lieu of going straight into his warm-down on the rollers, Dempster saw Arensman back to his usual self not long after the finish.

“To be honest, we won yesterday so after the initial obvious disappointment, he was fine and laughing on the bus. He’s a 23-year-old kid with high ambition and yesterday didn’t go perfectly for sure but at the same time, the Giro is long and I think just having him refocus and feel happy in his own skin that we’re here behind him and we believe in him, that’s the most important thing for us as a team.”

Read more: Geraint Thomas shares his delight as Ineos Grenadiers’ secret pays off at Giro d’Italia

On stage 2, the peloton is tasked with a challenging summit finish at the Santuario di Oropa, presenting Pogačar with another opportunity to put the squeeze on his rivals and Arensman a chance to respond immediately to yesterday’s disappointment. His team are hopeful that the Dutchman will come good this afternoon but noted that the 24-year-old has struggled at the start of Grand Tours in the past and without fail, displays his best form in the third week of the race.

As for the accusation of poor preparation levelled at the team by Arensman Sr on Saturday afternoon, Dempster brushed the notion aside and suggested that stage 1 may have “just been a rough day,” if nothing else. Away from the race, Ineos Grenadiers’ sports science unit will be continually assessing the success of their preparations, but will no doubt look to Sunday’s stage and hope that Arensman begins to display the kind of form that the team knows he is capable of.

“Preparation is as much an art as it is science. Sometimes everything goes perfectly and it just doesn’t come off, in terms of where he’s at in Romandie to here, I don’t think we can pinpoint anything,” added Dempster.

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