Thymen Arensman had mastered the first days of the Burgos Tour exceptionally well. The Dutch rider from INEOS Grenadiers avoided all crashes and thus presented an excellent approach to the first mountain test on Wednesday. However, on the 11-kilometer Lagunas de Neila, Arensman fell behind early on and only finished in 35th place, 1.44 minutes behind winner Sepp Kuss. “Overheated,” he wrote by way of explanation on his social media channels.
During the first two days, Arensman saw almost all of the riders in the general classification crash at least once. Damiano Caruso and Tao Geoghegan Hart suffered heavy falls in the big crash 35 kilometers from the finish on the second day. They had to abandon the race. Other riders such as Nairo Quintana and Valentin Paret-Peintre were also involved in the crash, and it later emerged that Sepp Kuss and Cian Uijtdebroeks of Visma | Lease a Bike had also crashed. However, Arensman was spared such incidents.
Through official channels, the 24-year-old Dutchman expressed his relief that he had not lost any time by following the crash in stage 2. He finally rejoined the peloton five kilometers from the finish. Everything seemed fine, so the disappointing result on day three was unexpected. “A tough day,” INEOS posted on social media, and for good reason. Team leader Oliver Cookson was optimistic beforehand: “It will be important for Thymen to pace his efforts, as we know he can ride a good time trial,” he said, looking ahead to Thursday’s 18.5-kilometer flat time trial.
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Arensman has to accept another time loss
In the time trial, Arensman will have to close a considerable gap of 1.54 minutes if he wants to deliver a solid overall result. This situation is reminiscent of the Giro d’Italia, where he was the reserve leader behind Geraint Thomas. He eventually finished sixth, as he did in 2023, but lost a total of four minutes during the opening weekend in Turin and Oropa.
The heat is undoubtedly one of the factors that affected his performance. While it wasn’t particularly hot on the opening weekend of the Giro, it’s 35 degrees in Burgos these days. Arensman struggled with the heat at the 2022 Giro, where he even became unwell after a time trial. A year later, the same thing happened at the sweltering opening time trial of the Giro. He also cited the high temperatures after disappointing performances at the 2023 Dutch Time Trial Championships and the Vuelta a España. Ahead of this year’s Giro, he said he had been working on that issue. “I live in Andorra now, I’m more used to it,” he said at the time.
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Can Arensman turn things around in the time trial?
After extending his contract with INEOS and what he described as a “good new start and good training block”, he arrived in Burgos with full confidence. But his legs didn’t play along on the first mountain stage. The hopeful quotes before the start now sound bitter after the significant loss of time: “I’ve looked at the route and it looks like it could suit me. The time trial in particular should suit me well, as I had good chronos at the Giro and completed some good sessions on the time trial bike. I’ll also do my best on the mountain finishes as always.”
Maybe Thursday’s time trial will actually bring positive results. It would be a welcome boost for him ahead of the Vuelta a España. “I felt good during the stage and on the first climb, but the heat robbed me of my strength on the last climb. It’s disappointing, but things like that can happen. I did my best and kept fighting. Let’s have a good time trial on Thursday,” said a determined Arensman.
