'I never want to hear that sound again' - Arensman survives first Giro test after frightening crash

While large parts of the bunch went down on the left side of the road, Netcompany INEOS managed to stay clear of the incident. The British team were lined up on the right, with Filippo Ganna driving the group, just as bikes and riders began to hit the ground on the opposite side.

“For people watching on television it must already have been shocking, but you can imagine what it is like when you are right there in the race,” Arensman said afterwards to In de Leiderstrui. “We were lucky to be on the right side. It could just as easily have been us.”

The crash brought down around 30 riders and forced the race into a brief neutralisation with several riders abandoning.

“There was sand everywhere on the road, but that can happen in the south of Italy as well,” Arensman said. “I was just talking about it with Magnus Sheffield and Geraint Thomas. We said to each other that we never want to hear that sound again. Argh.”

That sound, the unmistakable noise of a high speed crash in the peloton, clearly stayed with him. But in a race like the Giro, there is little room for reflection once the flag drops again.

“They were talking about having to wait for an ambulance, and those are pretty bizarre scenes in this sport,” Arensman said. “Then suddenly the car drives away again and you have to race.”

That detail also fed into the wider frustration in the peloton. Jasper Stuyven was even more outspoken afterwards, saying riders had asked for the general classification times to be neutralised because they believed there was no longer sufficient ambulance cover and another dangerous descent was still to come. Stuyven said the race director had told them the situation was being looked at, before, in his words, sticking his head out of the car “like a scared dog,”waving the flag, shouting “race” and quickly disappearing back inside.

For Arensman, the restart left no choice but to switch immediately back into survival mode.

“It is such a hard sport,” he said. “If you are still scared on the bike after something like that, you are at the back before you know it and then you are done. Then you can also forget about your GC ambitions. It is what it is, and you just have to continue.”

Arensman did exactly that. On the final climb, the Lyaskovets Monastery Pass, he stayed close enough to the main contenders and avoided losing time. He admitted he was not perfectly positioned when Jonas Vingegaard launched his acceleration near the top, but he came through the finale intact on a day when many others did not.

“I tried to ride as hard as possible uphill and that went well,” Arensman said. “I did lose some positions at the start of the climb when I came out of the saddle in a corner. When Jonas went, I was too far back. But I think I survived it well.”

The Dutchman now sits fourth overall, helped by bonus seconds taken earlier in the stage, while teammate Egan Bernal also collected time bonuses for Netcompany Ineos. On a day dominated by crashes, abandonments and safety concerns, the team emerged in a stronger position than most.