There was little disappointment for Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) as he rolled into Lienz on the final day of the Tour of the Alps, applauding the crowd and smiling despite losing the overall to Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling).
After the Dutchman had gone on a huge solo raid on stage 4 to take the leader's jersey from Storer by 11 seconds, he had known already that it would be a tough ask to keep the lead on a punchy stage 5, so he had little to complain about as he finished second overall.
The week in Italy and Austria delivered Arensman his first individual win in two and a half years, and his best GC result of the year as he heads towards the Giro d'Italia as Ineos' co-leader for the overall.
"I think overall I'm really proud of this week and this performance," he told Cyclingnews after stage 5.
"Of course, a stage victory and second in GC is not bad, especially in this race, and straight from altitude. I'm pretty proud of this performance. Michael was also just on another level, so I can be really happy and proud of my second place."
It was another big effort from Storer that allowed him to grab back the race lead, attacking off the back of a full Tudor lead-out on the penultimate climb, first followed by Arensman, but the Australian soon dropped the green jersey wearer.
"I don't think [there's anything else I could have done]. All my teammates did a really good job and I just went all in to try and follow Michael, but he and his team did a really good job and he was just the strongest on the climb," Arensman said.
"I think I did an amazing climb when he attacked, but he was just a little bit stronger, so it is what it is."
After initially distancing the peloton with Florian Stork, Storer was then able to link up with Lucas Eriksson from the early breakaway in a show of tactical prowess from Tudor.
Ineos opted not to put a rider in the break and allowed the move to go with a Tudor rider in it, but they had no regrets about how they approached the final day, despite ultimately losing out.
"We just focused on having nobody close on the GC in the break, and then we kept everybody behind to help Thymen," Ineos' AJ August explained at the finish.
"We gave our all, and maybe the strongest rider won, but we did a perfect job as a team, and that's just how it unfolded."
The other reason why Arensman will find little to be disappointed about with his second place is that, for him, the Tour of the Alps was primarily a preparation race for the Giro d'Italia, where he's aiming at improving upon two sixth-place finishes in previous years.
After initially being unsure about how his legs would respond after altitude, the last five days has confirmed that he's on a strong path heading towards the start of the Giro on May 9.
"I think I feel pretty positive. For me, this is a really good race straight after altitude," he said.
"I'm looking forward to going home after four weeks on the road, so I'll have one week at home to try and recover a little bit and then gain the last few per cent to be in top shape for the Giro."
