Thymen Arensman on happiness beyond the Tour: 'Cycling is secondary'

"This was the happiest year of my life,” Arensman told NU.nl. “I had to think about it for a moment, because cycling is only a small percentage of that.” 

It is not a throwaway line, it is the point. He is still all in on the work, but he no longer wants the sport to own the whole room. “Cycling is secondary,” he said. “A hugely important secondary thing, because I’m busy with my body 24/7 for it. But my personal life weighs much more heavily when it comes to whether I’m happy. This year my girlfriend also became a resident of Andorra. We got a super sweet little dog, everyone in my family is healthy. That is mainly why this was such a beautiful year for me.”

That calm is easier to understand when you remember where he was not so long ago. Arensman began 2025 carrying doubts from a season in which the joy had drained out of the routine. He had spoken about it openly the winter before, describing a moment that still stings. 

“After the first stage of the Giro I sat at the back of the bus crying,” he had said. “I wanted it too much.” Even now he does not pretend vulnerability comes naturally in a sport that rewards hardness. “I don’t gain that much from talking about my struggles on TV,” Arensman said. “But I thought it was important to show young athletes that it’s completely normal to have doubts. And to talk about them.”

The shift, he says, was less about a grand solution and more about small permissions. New guidance helped, but so did loosening the grip. “I’ve mainly become more honest with myself,” he explained. “I listen better to my body. I used to always want to do a little extra. Still train for five hours, even if I was tired. Now I’ll just ride four hours.” 

For an elite athlete, that sounds almost too simple, until you hear what it represents: trust that being human will not cost you everything.

The 2025 Tour de France became the proof of his new approach. On the Tourmalet, in the fog, he hunted for a familiar patch of roadside and found his parents in a rented camper, two dogs beside them. “I roughly knew where my parents would be, so I was really looking for them,” he said. “It was a really beautiful moment when I saw them, with the two dogs. I gave my mother a wink.” 

A few hours later, after a long solo, he took his first Tour stage win at Luchon Superbagnères, and the celebration was as personal as the performance. “In the evening I saw her and my parents at the hotel,” he said. 

“It was amazing to share the success with them. My family and girlfriend see not only an Instagram post or a message in the media, but also my very worst moments.”

And it did not end there. Six days later he won again, this time at La Plagne, beating Tour winners Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard. The outside world filed both victories as defining moments. Arensman sees them differently. 

They are the visible part, the part everybody else can point to. The rest is private, the slow work of getting back to himself. “For me those two stage wins are the cherry on the cake,” he said. “I know what process came before it. That is mainly what I will remember.”