{"id":591654,"date":"2026-05-19T02:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T02:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/591654\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T02:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T02:08:15","slug":"hes-a-proper-warrior-thymen-arensman-looking-to-steal-experience-from-egan-bernal-as-he-emerges-as-netcompany-ineos-gc-favourite-at-giro-ditalia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/591654\/","title":{"rendered":"‘He’s a proper warrior’ \u2013 Thymen Arensman looking to ‘steal experience’ from Egan Bernal as he emerges as Netcompany Ineos’ GC favourite at Giro d’Italia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Netcompany Ineos<\/a> came into this year’s Giro d’Italia with two co-leaders in the shape of former winner Egan Bernal and Thymen Arensman<\/a>, but it looks as though the road has already decided their primary leader after the first nine days.<\/p>\n

Following an early struggle on stage 4 in Cosenza, Bernal has shed major time on both summit finishes of Blockhaus and Corno alle Scale so far, leaving him in 15th, 6:49 off the race lead.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Arensman, meanwhile, looks to be improving as the race progresses, with his fourth place on Sunday’s summit finish seeing him move up to sixth overall, five minutes off maglia rosa Afonso Eul\u00e1lio.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Speaking on the Giro d’Italia<\/a>‘s second rest day, Arensman \u2013 twice a sixth-place finisher in the past \u2013 said that the race is going “pretty well” so far.<\/p>\n

“I think everything is under control and we\u2019ve had some really nice stages with the boys. We’re having fun and just trying to do the right things every day and I think that’s really helping me,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Of course, there\u2019s stress at times, but we try not to stress too much, crack some jokes with the guys, keep it light. And we just go try to go as fast as possible from A to B on every stage.”<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old raced to 10th place on Blockhaus, 1:44 behind stage winner and overall favourite Jonas Vingegaard. He was satisfied with his performance<\/a> on the first major test of the race, while even better was to come at Corno alle Scale<\/a>, where he finished fourth at 44 seconds behind Vingegaard.<\/p>\n

“If I\u2019m honest, I was hoping for a little bit of a harder run in,” he said of the Blockhaus stage. “It was after six hours, so you’re not fresh at the bottom, but everybody was still quite fresh, and I was hoping for a little bit more fatigue.<\/p>\n

“I still did a super good performance, and I really did my best, and I can be really proud of the performance I did. On the day, there were just some guys that were a bit stronger, I can’t control my rivals.<\/p>\n

“I hesitated a little bit too much when Felix [Gall] and Jonas went,” he said about the Corno alle Scale ascent. “Because maybe, in hindsight, I could have joined, and I was spacing a bit too much, but hindsight is a beautiful thing.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

“I’m proud of my performance still. I still went as hard as I could. It\u2019s racing, and it\u2019s good.”<\/p>\n

\n

\"Netcompany\n<\/p>\n

Netcompany Ineos co-leaders Arensman and Bernal at the Giro d’Italia pre-race presentation (Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Arensman and Bernal<\/a> officially remain as Netcompany Ineos co-leaders as the race heads into the stage 10 time trial for a week ending in another challenging mountain stage to Pila.<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen how that shakes out with the coming tests, though Arensman looks the most likely to challenge at the top of the GC. He said that having Giro and Tour champion Bernal by his side has been a great help.<\/p>\n

“To share the leadership with him is really nice. He\u2019s a Giro winner, so he’s a really big rider. I also still learn from him, like, fighting for the top spots in the GC,” he said.<\/p>\n

“He\u2019s just a proper warrior in the bunch and on the bike and super chilled off the bike. He knows where to switch on and switch off, and I think this is super important in a Grand Tour.<\/p>\n

“He has this experience, and I can like steal some of that almost, draw on his experience. Just I see what he’s doing and try to take what he does, like the same as I did with G at last year\u2019s Giro. I give it my own twist, and see what works for me.”<\/p>\n

The pan-flat 42km time trial between Viareggio and Massa<\/a> is the next test of the Giro. It’s a stage where strong time triallist Arensman will aim to put some time between those riders around him in the standings \u2013 behind him, Mathys Rondel and Ben O’Connor, and in front of him, Jai Hindley and Cristian Scaroni.<\/p>\n

“I think you’re never really looking forward to a time trial because you know it’s going hurt like hell!” Arensman said. “So, I just try not to think about it today, switch off and have a nice coffee stop.<\/p>\n

“Then tomorrow morning I just try to do my normal routine as I always do and then really set the best time possible. I think it’s quite simple. If I can do this whole process just right, then it’s something you can look forward to, but if people really stress about the time trial, then it’s not something you really look forward to.<\/p>\n

“But I just think it\u2019s pretty cool to do a TT at the Giro, right? That keeps it enjoyable, I think.”<\/p>\n

Who will challenge Jonas Vingegaard at this year’s Giro d’Italia? Subscribe to Cyclingnews for unlimited access to our coverage of the Corsa Rosa. Enjoy unrivalled reporting from our team of journalists on the ground, including breaking news, analysis, and more, from every stage as it happens, plus access to the Cyclingnews app to follow the action on the go! <\/a>Find out more<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Netcompany Ineos came into this year’s Giro d’Italia with two co-leaders in the shape of former winner Egan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-591654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}