Arensman spoiled Pogacar and Vingegaard’s plans — but the real shift began in Nice and Van Aert and Del Toro-battle

Not so long ago, a Dutch rider finishing top ten in the Tour de France would spark national praise. In 2025, Thymen Arensman’s two (!) stage wins didn’t trigger a national holiday either — but that’s mostly because Dutch fans have been spoiled for years. Still, the 25‑year‑old INEOS Grenadiers climber’s Tour was anything but ordinary.

The 2025 Tour will be remembered for Tadej Pogacar’s dominance, a stage win and stint in yellow for Mathieu van der Poel, and Wout van Aert winning the first‑ever Paris finish over Montmartre. For Arensman, though, it was the Tour of a true breakthrough, after years of wrestling with both body and mind.

Arensman has been around for a while, doing brilliant things. In 2022, riding for Team Sunweb, he won stages in the Tour de Pologne and Vuelta a España, and he also finished fifth overall in Spain. That earned him a move to INEOS and, while he twice placed sixth in the Giro d’Italia, there was always the feeling that more was possible.

Before the 2025 season, Arensman had had enough of hoping, overthinking, training harder and harder, and the pressure he put on himself. He hired a new coach, changed the way he trained and, crucially, made a mental shift. "“Ultimately, it’s just cycling. For me as a rider, and for the people who love this sport, it’s an important side issue — but still a side issue.”

When he lost time in the opening days of the Giro — as in other years — he was less disappointed. And when he’d won a stage at the Tour of the Alps before the Giro, he stayed calm as well. “In recent years, cycling was my main thing, and then you only end up fighting yourself”, he reflects in an interview with Helden Magazine.

Good day or bad day, the new rule is simple: as long as he’s done everything. And that mindset delivered two Tour stage wins. Emptying the tank — and then finishing in front of Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard. “I went all‑out, over the limit. I collapsed after the finish. That’s how deep you go when you’re trying to win a Tour stage with guys like Pogacar and Vingegaard chasing you.”

On stage 14 to Luchon–Superbagnères he won from the break, keeping Pogacar at a comfortable distance. On stage 19 to La Plagne he attacked from the GC group and, after a late move, held off Vingegaard by two seconds at the line.

Yet when asked for his ‘best’ result of the season, he points to third place at Paris–Nice — the moment he truly felt his new approach, physically and mentally, was working. “Because my coach and I know everything that went into that result… there was a whole process behind Paris–Nice; one that’s still ongoing.”

And now? In 2026, a balanced Arensman plans to target the GC in at least one Grand Tour, while investing even more in time trialling. With a bit of luck, things can fall into place — and he underlines that he might actually have been the strongest on the Giro gravel stage that Van Aert won and Isaac Del Toro took pink.

A puncture on the Tuscan sterrato ruined his shot that day, but 2025 felt like he had a new set of legs. “I’m pretty sure I could have made life difficult for Wout and Del Toro in the finale", he adds. “Wout told me a few days later that every time I was on the front, he was on the limit.”