'What happens in Cardiff…' – Arensman reflects on Thomas' farewell and ninth place at Worlds TT

Speaking to In de Leiderstrui after the finish, the 25-year-old admitted his summer had already been heavy with Tour de France exploits and the criterium circuit that followed. Then came the Tour of Britain crash that left him nursing a torn glute and hip bruising, and a cold in the week before the Worlds added to his troubles. 

Still, he refused to miss Thomas’ final race. “It was the last race of Geraint’s career and I really wanted to be there,” he said. “The party afterwards? Let’s just say it was a Welsh send-off. What happens in Cardiff, stays in Cardiff. For me, though, I kept the handbrake on – I was in bed by midnight to make sure I’d still have something in the tank for here.”

A short block of recovery helped, but the pain never fully disappeared. “Luckily I had three days of recovery afterwards, which helped ease the pain in the glute,” Arensman explained in Kigali. “During my first time trial training I still felt it during the efforts. It doesn’t heal in one or two weeks, but by now it was manageable.”

When the race came, he accepted that the numbers would not match his best. “I did everything well and rode at the limit that was my limit today,” he said. “For a 50-minute effort, I was 50 to 60 watts down on normal. I already sensed during the recon that it was going to be like that.” 

To remove any distractions, he turned off his power display and rode purely on feel. “I rode on feel and I can be satisfied with that.”

Attention now shifts to Sunday’s road race, where the conditions may again shape the outcome. Arensman, who lives at 1,500 metres in Andorra, noted the difference in Rwanda. “Altitude is altitude, but here the air is dirtier, there’s more smog than in the mountains of Andorra. But of course, that’s the same for everyone.” 

He expects a cautious race. “If you go into the red once, you’ll really pay for it. I think it might be quite a conservative Worlds, because you can barely ride above threshold here. We’ll see – maybe that suits me.”

His ninth place may not stand out on the result sheet, but given the circumstances it was enough for Arensman to take quiet satisfaction and to look ahead with curiosity to what Sunday might bring.