Thymen Arensman had a race of ups and downs at the Vuelta a Espana, a race concluded in sixth place where he's proved his abilities to ride Grand Tours consistently at the highest level.
“It is a successful Vuelta for me and for the team," Arensman said after concluding the race in sixth spot, a position won over the final weeks of the race where he kept his cool and rode up the GC benefiting from strong recovery skills and good tactics. “In the second and third week I get less bad than other riders. That may be my strength for the future. I hope I have become even stronger, also towards next year. I am now 22 and I think I still have a few years to grow, but that is also a logical development.”
Arensman started the race as leader of Team DSM in the absence of Romain Bardet. Although the Dutch team did not have the riders to protect him in the mountains or to fight for wins in other terrains, the 22-year old did very well by himself and thrived in the mountains. A bad day in the time-trial saw him loose unexpected time, but he later benefited from that as his 11th spot saw him as no threat for the GC riders who allowed him to get on the breakaway on the queen stage to Sierra Nevada, where he put on a show, winning the stage by a large margin and climbing to eighth on the general classification.
On the final week however he didn't feel the fatigue from his attacks as he climbed to seventh after Primoz Roglic's abandon, and later to sixth on the final mountain stage as he attacked the finale to Puerto de Navacerrada, coming close to a second week, but taking the position from Carlos Rodríguez who had crashed earlier in the race severely.
“Remco Evenepoel is a super great rider, a super talent. He is also a nice guy in the peloton," he said of the race winner, who is as old as Arensman. "I'm happy for him that he can win. I haven't the faintest idea if I can do that. That depends entirely on my development. This could also be my highlight, for example, but I have no clue.”
Arensman is set for a move to INEOS Grenadiers to be announced soon, but his time with Team DSM has ended on a high, after a successful season in which he finally found consistency and showed his true talent at Elite level.
1 x stage🏆 1 x stage🥈 6 x stage top 🔟s 6th on GC🚴🏻♂️ 3 weeks of racing #LaVuelta22 ✅ where the guys gave it their all, taking home some top day results and @ThymenArensman's 6th overall! Shout out to our 2 debut finishers @marco_brnr + @JonasHvideberg too💪🏻 #KeepChallenging
