Thankfully, Arensman was able to get back into the peloton safely, thanks in part to the quick help provided to him by
INEOS Grenadiers teammate,
Connor Swift. “I’m riding on Connor’s bike right now because we almost have the same bike size, so we just swapped. Then
Jhonatan Narváez did a super good job bringing me back," Arensman recalls. "I was only a bit scared because I know that Connor is using different brakes, and they’re flipped, so I was a bit scared in the final but in the end, I managed to stay in the bunch so it was all good. I was screaming to him, ‘swap bikes’ because it was the fastest thing to do.”
Even having successfully managed the swap and latched onto the back wheel of the Ecuadorian National Champion, Arensman also saw his GC dream come crashing down again as he was forced into evasive action to narrowly avoid being clipped on the back wheel by a neutral service vehicle. “I have no idea what the guy was doing, and he had no idea that I was there," Arensman says of the scare. "If it was once centimetre and I was done."
Going into the final three stages, Arensman's main target, aside from helping Geraint Thomas secure a podium, will be to overcome Antonio Tiberi in the race for the Best Young Riders jersey. The Dutchman currently trials the Italian by 41 seconds.