Yesterday Thymen Arensman had to chase the time trial. The 26-year-old Dutch rider from Netcompany INEOS left the starting ramp in Évian-les-Bains about ten seconds after his scheduled start time (16.25): the television coverage clearly showed both the inexorable countdown and Thymen's rush towards the start.

But what happened to the Dutch cyclist? He explained it himself to colleagues at Nos: «It's my fault, I was warming up and was focused. No one from the team or the UCI told me that I needed to finish warming up and go to the ramp. But it was my mistake» he said.

Despite the lost time, Arensman delivered a solid performance, finishing the stage in seventh place with a deficit of 1'46" from Evenpoel. «The mistake bothered me a bit but I realized that continuing to think about it wouldn't help me, so I tried to convert the disappointment into energy to perform well» the cyclist explained further.

He then added: «It was an unpleasant episode, but I'm human and we're in the third week of the Tour de France. My team and I need to learn from what happened».

For whatever reason, Thymen Arensman was not yet on the ramp at his scheduled start time and ultimately began today's Tour de France individual time trial nearly 12 seconds late.#TDF2026 pic.twitter.com/swUXAb9ZtN

— René Bugner (@RNBWCV) July 21, 2026