INTERVIEW | "Take it all the way and enjoy it" - Thymen Arensman side by side with Geraint Thomas on his final race day as a pro

All over the road, these past few days at the Tour of Britain have seen thunderous cheers for Geraint Thomas, one of Great Britain's most successful riders in modern cycling, and its most recent Tour de France winner. The INEOS Grenadiers retire today, and CyclingUpToDate talked to his teammate Thymen Arensman about the special day and also the cooldown from the Tour de France, where he won two stages.

The Dutchman has shown a lot of quality in the past, but nothing would come close to what he achieved in France this summer, winning the summit finish to Superbagnères first on stage 14, but later on winning the final mountain stage to La Plagne where he attacked from a group of Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard to go on to win the stage.

That is now behind, but this week he's been getting some congratulations over his triumphs. "For sure you see guys come up to you and congratulate you from the Tour. You see it's quite special what I did, they said 'was it a real big achievement?' but in the end it's just another race here and it was already a few weeks ago, it's how it goes".

Here in Britain he was also bound to be one of the main favourites to win the overall classification, however luck was not on his side and he had a rough few opening days to the race that jeopardized his chances. "My legs are pretty good, I had good training, but I crashed real hard on stage 2, broke a wheel the next stage and punctured with 15k to go," he explained. 

On The Tumble he had the chance to go for the win, but he was simply not recovered from his injuries yet which made it impossible. "I feel quite a bit a tear in my glutes I wasn't sure I'd be able to make the finish. I tried what I could yesterday and the day before but my body is still recovering and I'm not 100%. Luckily there were no fractures, the doctor was quite surprised that there were no fractures that was fun to hear. Obviously I want to to do the best for the team today, for Sam [Watson], and enjoy this last race for G".

Arensman will join Thomas in his final day of racing, one that is very special for the team and this week the riders have been racing on special equipment due to the occasion. Whilst Arensman is not as much of a veteran in the lineup as some of his other teammates, it is still a special occasion to be part of.

"I just really hope he enjoys it and I'm sure he will enjoy tonight. Unfortunately the weather is not great today but I hope he enjoys his last race and last climb in the race. I hope he just takes it all-in and that's basically told him to take it all the way and enjoy it," he said of his teammate.