Thymen Arensman took his second Tour de France stage victory with an epic finale on the La Plagne climb on stage 19.
Arensman was part of a select GC group on the final mountain, and managed to escape solo with 13km to go after repeat attacks from him, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma Lease A Bike) and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates - XRG).
The Dutchman managed to hold on into the final moments, crossing the line just a few metres ahead of the chasing GC contenders and take his second victory of this year’s Tour de France. Arensman also moved up to 12th on the GC going into tomorrow’s penultimate stage.
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Thymen Arensman:
“I’m absolutely destroyed. I can’t believe it. Already winning one stage in the Tour was unbelievable from a break, but now from the GC group against the strongest riders in the world, it feels like I’m dreaming. I don’t know what I just did.
“After the descent towards La Plagne, we were talking on the radio and Tobias [Foss] was still there with me and tomorrow is another opportunity. I told Tobias and speaking with Zak [Dempster] on the radio that today is the last mountain stage, I have no GC to ride for but I will try to hang on a few kilometres on the climb and see how the legs feel. I told Tobias to swing off and tomorrow is his day and I’ll see what I can do today. I started the climb and I was quite in control. I was like, ‘I have no GC, maybe they look at each other, you know what I’ll just try it’. I just didn’t take no for answer. It’s Tadej [Pogacar] and Jonas [Vingegaard] and everybody knows they are the strongest in the world, they’re almost aliens! Just as a human, I still want to try to beat them. I just can’t believe I beat them today.
“I tried to not look behind, to just go as fast as I could, and I did and it was just enough. It’s just crazy. “