Thymen Arensman raced to his first professional victory on stage 6 of the Tour de Pologne, posting the fastest time in the tough uphill individual time trial. It was a strong day on the 11.8km course for Team DSM placing three in the top 20, with Marco Brenner finishing fifth and Nikias Arndt 18th.

Having twice finished second on stages of the Giro d’Italia earlier this year, as well as finishing third at the Tour of the Alps, Arensman has been knocking on the door of a big win for some time and so today is a well earned reward for the hard work and progression over the past seasons.

Arensman now sits in second overall heading into tomorrow’s final stage in Poland, just 11 seconds behind the overall race leader.

“It was a good day!” exclaimed Arensman after his podium duties. “All the preparation from the staff and team was on point. All I needed was some good legs out there. I didn’t have my very best day but in the end it was good enough for the victory. It’s great to get my first pro victory with the team and for this to be in a TT at a WorldTour race.

“The win’s only possible thanks to the investments that the team has made in time trialling with me. We’ve got an absolutely amazing equipment setup too. We can all be proud for this achievement so I want to say thanks to the whole team. Now we look ahead to tomorrow’s final stage.”

Team DSM coach Luke Roberts said: “Once the parcours was released for this race we knew this would be a really suitable time trial for Thymen. he prepared well for it over the past weeks and we could get him through the first five stages in good shape to challenge for the overall classification. He came into today with good feelings and he did a great ride. Credit to the whole team for the work to set him up for this. He finished it off with the stage win that puts himself into contention for the overall with just one stage to go.”