Thymen Arensman (Netcompany Ineos) missed his start time for the Tour de France stage 16 individual time trial, arriving on the start ramp in a panic and then waving his arm in frustration after being pushed down the ramp by officials. Yet he still managed to produce a strong ride.
The Dutch rider was not in sight as the clock ticked down to his official start time of 16:25:30. He appeared ten seconds later, with a race official who was there to hold him for the start of his ride also late and almost falling in the rush for them to get to the start ramp.
Under UCI rules, Arensman had to stop on the start line and eventually got going about 15 seconds after his official time. He waved his arm in frustration before getting up to speed for the rolling 26.1km time trial overlooking Lake Geneva.
Arensman finished five seconds off the fastest pace set by Mattia Cattaneo (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), missing out on the hot seat by a margin much smaller than his start delay.
He ultimately seventh on the stage, but would have been at least one place higher if he had started on time.
NOS commentator Sebastiaan Timmerman witnessed the incident, stating on the television coverage, "Arensman just kept sitting in the tent while they were counting down. Someone from the ASO ran towards him, while a team member stood in front of him with the bike.
"Then he suddenly jumped on the bike and rode to the podium. The team staff dropped the ball."
Arensman spoke in Dutch to media after the stage, taking responsibility for the error.
"It is my own responsibility. I was focused, but neither the team physio nor anyone from the UCI signaled that I had to go,” Arensman said according to Wielerflits “That’s a bummer, but I tried not to lose my head and pedal as hard as possible. It is frustrating, of course."
The clock starts whether you're there or not! :stopwatch:Thymen Arensman was not happy! :angry: pic.twitter.com/GpqJRueZTyJuly 21, 2026
Ineos' Director of Racing Geraint Thomas explained a little more about what happened, and praised his overall performance.
"Thymen had a bit of an issue at the start, but then the way he turned it around – because it's not the best way to start a TT, the first kilometre or so it took him a while to get going – but then you see the result he got in the end was great," he said.
"He got to the start on time, the new rule is that you've got to be there 10 minutes before to be sat there in the pen, bike riders and bikes around him. He just got a bit lost and focused in his own world, in the zone. The swanny was there with his bike with a minute and a half to go, and it's just unfortunate."
Not a stranger to TT errors, Thomas had plenty of sympathy for the Dutch rider, but underlined that it is their ultimate responsibility to start their race on time.
"I've done TTs before when I've started and realised after going down the ramp that I've still got my gilet on, that happened in 2022 when I ended up finishing third in the Tour. All that money we spent on aero testing and equipment and I'm rolling around in the prologue in a gilet, so I can certainly understand that," he said.
"But at the end of the day it's up to the rider, it's their responsibility to know their start time. I always knew who was off after me. But it is what it is."
Arensman settled into his effort, quickly banishing the negative energy from the missed start, however.
“Being frustrated about it doesn't get me anywhere. To channel it into other energy, but I am only human… Especially in the third week. It sucks, but there is little I can do about it. The team and I mainly have to learn from it."
Arensman won two mountain stages at the 2025 Tour de France and finished 12th overall. He finished fourth at this year's Giro d'Italia and was second to teammate Filippo Ganna in the flat Tuscan time trial. However, he admitted he had a difficult recovery and build-up for this year's Tour de France. He is 29th in the general classification, over 90 minutes behind Tadej Pogačar.
The Dutchman posted to Instagram on Tuesday night that he had "lost the time, but found the legs" and he and the team will certainly be hoping that he might try to replicate the stage success of last year's Tour.
"Thymen has found great condition and great form to do what he's done today, so it means the rest of this race there's still opportunities to come and he can use those legs and put them to good use in the mountains," Thomas said.
Ineos' other performance
Though Ineos' day in the TT will likely be remembered for Arensman's missed start, their other riders had strong rides too, with Josh Tarling spending most of the first part of the day and eventually finishing 10th on the hilly course.
"Obviously we had a few guys taking it steady and a few guys going for it, with a few to what's to come in the race. Our two TT specialists in Josh and Pippo [Ganna] gave it a good old nudge," Thomas said.
"It wasn't a course suited to them; it's a long climb, it was a climber's TT really in the end. But they both still wanted to give it a good crack because they're champion time trialists and that's what they do. They got out there, and they gave it their best. In the end it was a long time going uphill which for the lighter guys is a lot more favourable, but they ended up 10th and 11th respectively."
With so many strong time trialists in their squad, not just Tarling, Ganna and Arensman but former world champion Tobias Foss too, Ineos were somewhat disappointed to miss out on the win in the opening team time trial, and are still waiting for a win in this Tour de France, but there are still five chances left.
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