Last year, Thymen Arensman achieved a stage victory in the Vuelta a España and finished 6th overall. This season, he is back in Spain as the second option for the INEOS Grenadiers team, in case there is a need to replace Geraint Thomas.
“It’s a shame that Thomas is the sole leader. Having two leaders is also possible, as we saw in the Giro d’Italia,” comments Jan Hermsen from Eurosport, as part of the Dutch channel’s preparation for the Vuelta a España. “We don’t need to pretend that Arensman is ready, right?”
However, Jeroen Vanbelleghem, broadcasting partner with Hermsen at Eurosport, expresses a higher level of skepticism. He questions whether Arensman is truly prepared to take on the overall leadership in a renowned team like INEOS Grenadiers.
“Arensman can compete for a classification alongside Thomas. But if you say: we’re going for you. Then he will get very nervous.”
“Thomas said something in his podcast that I caught anyway,” Vanbelleghem concludes. “He said about Arensman: he looks very thin, I hope he’s not overdoing it. It was just a sentence. Arensman is very thin, skinny. That’s all Thomas said, I’m not going to delve into it, but if Thomas says something like that, you have to listen.”
