“If I was not wearing a helmet, I don't know if I would still be here”:
Ineos rider Thymen Arensman thanks helmet after brutal crash ruling him out
of Vuelta a España

The Dutch cyclist suffered a late crash in the race, said he woke up in the
hospital and couldn't remember what happened and was "unbelievably lucky"
....
by ADWITIYA PAL SAT, SEP 02, 2023 12:29

The Vuelta a España this year hasn't been very kind to its riders — the
latest victim of the Spanish Grand Tour yesterday was Ineos Grenadiers'
Thymen Arensman, who suffered a brutal crash in the later stages of
yesterday's stage seven, and has now been forced to abandon the race.

He attributed his coming out of the crash safely to his helmet and his
luck, with thankfully no broken bones, but a few stitches to his face and a
missing tooth.

Arensman wrote: "I am unbelievably lucky, I think. Apart from a bit of pain
everywhere, my head hurts and missing a tooth it looks like nothing broken,
so far.

"I can’t remember anything from what happened and woke up in the hospital,
I must have been out for a few hours."

With only 5 kilometres to go in yesterday's flat stage at the Vuelta, the
crash was most likely instigated by an unfortunate of coming together of
the wheels of two Alpecin-Deceuninck's teammates, Jimmy Janssens and the
points leader and Aussie sprint sensation Kaden Groves.

As Janssen went down, with two more riders from Groupama-FDJ going down
with him, Arensman was also caught in it, with the 23-year-old rider from
Netherlands seemingly catching the short end of the stick and concerningly
staying down on the ground as everyone hastily called for emergency
services.

Jumbo-Visma to wear helmets with “healthy brains” at Paris-Roubaix to
encourage helmet wearing

Despite the harrowing nature of the crash and the scary aftermath, Arensman
was jovial and uplifted in his post. "I am not my most handsome self
anymore with stitches and injuries to my face + missing a tooth, but I’ll
take it. Probably my helmet saved my life"

Team Ineos Grenadiers informed this morning that Arensman would be heading
back to the Netherlands with his girlfriend.

He said: "It was quite scary, I was out for a few hours. I think I am super
lucky I didn't break anything. I am missing a teeth, my neck hurts while
I'm wearing this beautiful thing — my eye and my stitches — actually hurts
everywhere a bit, my whole body, my knees, everything.

"I think I'm super lucky because it could have really bad. My head also
hurts a little bit so I'm going to take it easy now. I think if I was not
wearing a helmet I don't know if I would still be here. So I can really
thank the helmet for that."

> Why is Dan Walker’s claim that a bike helmet saved his life so controversial?

He added that "everything was quite alright" and he was "relatively okay",
and he would be cheering for his teammates while trying to recover to full
health.

The day was a slow burner for the Grenadiers, with a two man break never
more than a handful of minutes up the road.

The team's principal GC contender Geraint Thomas unfortunately crashed
before the TV broadcast began, but was quickly back on his bike and in the
peloton. The concern for the team, besides its riders' wellbeing, would be
that the Welshman was already 2:30 behind the rest of the favourites in the
GC after losing an additional 24 seconds yesterday.

Arensman became the second Ineos rider to be forced to leave after a crash
in what has been a difficult first week for the British team. His Belgian
teammate Laurens De Plus suffered a broken hip after going down in the
rain-soaked team time trial marred by poor visibility in stage one in
Barcelona, and had to abandon as well.

> “Think!” – Ineos Grenadiers rider Laurens De Plus sends safety message to
> drivers after he is knocked off bike

There was another crash towards the end of the race, with Jumbo-Visma's GC
contender-slash-domestique Sepp Kuss getting caught in it, but the American
was thankfully quickly back in the peloton.

The flat stage was a perfect day for sprinters after the vicious climb at
the astronomical observatory in Javalambre. However, The sprint wasn't any
less chaotic either, without the big name sprinters and their monster lead
outs it became a free-for-all, Geoffrey Soupe taking a surprise win for
TotalEnergies ahead of Caja Rural's Orluis Aular.

<https://road.cc/content/news/ineos-rider-arensman-thanks-helmet-after-vuelta-crash-303617>

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