Not Pogacar or van der Poel; a different rider inspired José de Cauwer: "He rides in front there with Vingegaard and Pogacar, and then he pulls away from them"

Cycling is a sport that stars can emerge in for several different reasons. The sheer amount of work, sacrifice and tactics that go into being a professional and into actual racing makes it easy for idols to come out of just about any race. Sporza commentator José de Cauwer had a specific remark to give about Thymen Arensman as he is very interested in the Dutchman's mentality and abilities following what he did at the Tour de France this year.

"I enjoy Pogacar, I enjoy Mathieu van der Poel – that's for sure. But I especially enjoy riders who make it happen. Someone like Arensman," the Belgian commentator said in De Grote Plaat podcast. "I'm not saying that because I'm here in the Netherlands now, not at all, but simply because he seizes those opportunities."

Arensman is a type of rider that is now not common in the current peloton, having all the necessary means to be a top stage-racer but lacking the consistency to achieve top results in the Grand Tours. He doesn't often show his best form but when he does, he wins big. At the Tour of the Alps he had a majestic solo win in the mountains that almost gave him the overall win, then at the Giro d'Italia he was almost completely absent from the action... And at the Tour de France he fell out of GC right away but then reached his absolute best form into the second half of the race.

"For years, he's had a bad first week," de Cauwer points out. "Why? God knows. At the end, he rides well again. How does that happen? I'd love to be his coach. I'd want to solve that. I don't know how, but I mean: I'd want to be there. What's going on in that guy's head? What's the reason?"

"He goes to the Tour with a different preparation, with different expectations. And boom, he succeeds in one go. And then he even starts to dare to try things." Arensman won stage 14 into Superbagnères from a breakaway, holding off Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard who had their GC battle behind. But his true big achievement was a week later in La Plagne, the final mountain stage of the race, where he beat the two again but this time head-to-head.

"He rides in front there with Vingegaard and Pogacar, and then he pulls away from them. Just with the thought: figure it out, I don't care. He makes it happen. That really affects me emotionally," de Cauwer explains. His climbing ability was shown in the best possible way and the INEOS Grenadiers rider came out with with a spectacular victory directly ahead of the duo who were sprinting behind.