Thymen Arensman can hardly contain his heroic stage victory in the Tour de France. The INEOS Grenadiers rider feels like he outsmarted two aliens on La Plagne.
Arensman sped away from a group containing the yellow jersey wearer Tadej Pogacar and his great rival Jonas Vingegaard 12 kilometers from the finish. The rider from Deil in Gelderland built a lead of half a minute.
Towards the finish, that lead shrank, but the Dutchman ultimately crossed the finish line on Alpine giant La Plagne just seconds ahead of the two best general classification riders in the world. With that, he booked his second stage victory of this Tour.
“I have no words for it,” Arensman said to the NOS afterwards. “Winning one stage in the Tour is already unbelievable. Now I beat the very strongest riders in the world in a fair fight. It feels like I’m dreaming.”
It was striking that Pogacar and Vingegaard both didn’t seem to make any attempt to reel Arensman back in when he attacked. As a result, Arensman was able to build a decent lead, which ultimately proved sufficient.
“I thought: I no longer have a classification to take into account. Maybe they are looking at each other. That happened. I also know that Jonas and Tadej are the best in the world. They are almost aliens. But I still wanted to try.”
‘Every fiber said I had to stop’
Arensman’s attempt seemed to be successful for a long time, until the lead quickly shrank towards the finish. Arensman seemed to be giving the victory out of his hands, but still arrived just a little earlier than Pogacar and Vingegaard.
“I wasn’t thinking about anything in that last kilometer,” says Arensman. “I tried to take in the encouragement from the Dutch fans, to get some extra watts out of it. Every fiber in my body said I had to stop and the cramp shot into my calves. Fortunately, it was just enough.”
With the stage win on La Plagne, Arensman follows in the footsteps of Boogerd, who won on La Plagne in 2002. Friday was the first time since Boogerd’s success that the Tour climbed the Alpine giant again.
“I am too young to remember his stage, but I have seen some videos. It also rained during his stage victory, just like now. This is super beautiful.”