Tour 2025: Thymen Arensman Secures Dutch Victory with Magnificent Solo in Grueling Pyrenees Stage

In the opening phase, there were several breakaway attempts, but it proved difficult for a small group to get away from the peloton. We did see solo moves alternating ahead of the main group. Jonathan Milan rode alone briefly, followed by a short solo from Fred Wright. Meanwhile, there was also a withdrawal: the ill Steff Cras (TotalEnergies) could no longer continue. Shortly after, Mattias Skjelmose faced the same risk, but the climber from Lidl-Trek remounted after a heavy crash.

Evenepoel cracks early and abandons 
Heading toward the foot of the Tourmalet, it seemed we would finally get an early breakaway. Former Tour winner Geraint Thomas took half a minute gap together with Quentin Pacher and Mattéo Vercher, but they didn’t get a definitive gap either. Although Skjelmose was still riding behind the peloton, Lidl-Trek began pushing the pace. Right before the Tourmalet, there was an intermediate sprint where Jonathan Milan aimed to secure maximum points. The trio was soon caught again. Milan then won the sprint ahead of Mathieu van der Poel and Biniam Girmay.

Eenkhoorn tries to pull Evenepoel through - photo: Cor Vos[/caption]

After that, the climbing began in earnest. Julian Alaphilippe set a hard pace in the first kilometer, working for Michael Storer, but the first attack came from Santiago Buitrago. The Colombian was unable to get away, after which Tim Wellens took up the work for yellow jersey Tadej Pogacar. The peloton was still quite large at this point—with nearly sixteen kilometers of climbing to go—but for Remco Evenepoel, the pace was already too much. The third overall cracked and abandoned a few kilometers later.

Arensman forms breakaway, Martinez goes solo
Thymen Arensman clearly had better legs. The Dutch rider from INEOS Grenadiers attacked and established a breakaway group initially consisting of four riders: Arensman himself, Einer Rubio, Lenny Martinez, and Valentin Paret-Peintre. Shortly behind, a group of strong climbers formed, including Sepp Kuss, Simon Yates, Carlos Rodríguez, Michael Storer, Ben Healy, Michael Woods, Enric Mas, Ben O'Connor, Belgian Emiel Verstrynge, and Tobias Halland Johannessen, who was eighth overall. Some of these riders bridged up to the leaders.

Martinez found the group too large and pushed hard again. He first rode away with O'Connor but soon dropped the Australian. The Bahrain Victorious rider quickly built an advantage of nearly two minutes over the group of now sixteen chasers, which included all the aforementioned names except Healy. Also riding with them were Aleksandr Vlasov, Gregor Mühlberger, Sergio Higuita, and Jordan Jegat. Meanwhile, Nils Politt led the peloton on behalf of UAE Emirates. They crested the summit three and a half minutes behind Martinez.

Martinez leads the charge ahead of Arensman - photo: Cor Vos[/caption]

In the wet and misty descent, Martinez lost some of his gains relative to the first chasers. Those were now Sepp Kuss and Valentin Paret-Peintre, who started the Col d'Aspin with three-quarter minute deficit. The group including Johannessen and Arensman followed at just over a minute but lost more ground uphill. That did not apply to Kuss and Paret-Peintre. They maintained their gap on the Aspin and then caught Martinez in the descent. Thus, we started the Peyresourde with three leaders.

Arensman goes solo
The chasing group now consisted of Arensman, Rodríguez, Johannessen, O'Connor, and Yates. They quickly closed in on Kuss, Martinez, and Paret-Peintre on the climb. At six kilometers from the summit, they joined forces. Yates was already dropped at that point, and then O'Connor began struggling, mainly due to Arensman’s high tempo. Arensman attacked 4.5 kilometers from the top. Johannessen and Martinez initially followed, but the second surge was too much for them as well. Arensman went solo.

A great situation for the Dutch rider, but he still had to consider the peloton. Politt, then Sivakov, and later Soler ensured the gap with the lead group stayed limited. However, Arensman had again extended his lead to three and a half minutes at the top of the Peyresourde. The gap to the first chasers was one and a half minutes. Could Arensman hold on over the final 32 kilometers?

Arensman starts solo on Superbagnères
Approaching the final climb, Arensman’s lead over Johannessen’s group increased slightly, while the gap with the yellow jersey group decreased somewhat. The main threat appeared to be Pogacar. The Slovenian started the climb with Soler at the front, whose pace soon dropped Matteo Jorgenson. Then Jhonatan Narváez took over, but Arensman stayed strong for the time being. He only began losing more time when Felix Gall attacked 7.5 kilometers from the summit.

The Austrian had reduced the gap to two minutes at five kilometers remaining. Pogacar’s group, now led by Adam Yates, followed twenty seconds behind. A kilometer later, the group shattered due to an attack from Jonas Vingegaard. Pogacar closed the gap while seated, Lipowitz joined shortly after, and the rest were left behind. The three headed towards Gall. Pogacar briefly took the lead, after which Lipowitz dropped back, but the Slovene didn’t push hard. This tempted Vingegaard to launch a new attack, but he couldn’t shake Pogacar.

Final kilometer
Meanwhile, the two were quickly closing in on Arensman, but the Dutchman was still leading at the start of the final kilometer—with a lead of one and a half minute. That proved enough for Arensman to hold on. He secured the fourth and biggest win of his professional career.

Behind Arensman, Vingegaard and Pogacar stayed together until the last few hundred meters. There, Pogacar sprinted away from his rival to gain a few (bonus) seconds. He finished second, with Vingegaard in third.