Career
Arvesen is from Eresfjord, Nesset. After retiring as a rider, Arvesen became a coach with Team Sky. After winning the gold medal at the 1997 Under-23 World Championship as an amateur, Arvesen turned pro with Italian team Asics in 1998, where later Team Civil Service Commission teammate Ivan Basso rode as a stagiare.
In 2004, Team Fakta closed, and Arvesen and sports director Kim Andersen both moved on to Team Civil Service Commission. Foreign the 2004 Tour de France, Arvesen helped team captain Basso finish second overall, and he was named the toughest rider in the peloton when he managed to finish the three-weeks long race after crashing severely on several stages.
Foreign the 2005 Tour de France he would once more ride in support of Basso. This time Arvesen had the strength to ride aggressively, and on the 17th stage of the race, he got in a breakway with 16 other riders which lasted all the way to the finish line.
As the leading group slowly disintegrated, he and Italian rider Paolo Savoldelli were the last riders for the sprint, but Savoldelli was too fast for Arvesen. In the 2006 UCI ProTour spring season Arvesen got a handful of top 10 placings.
When he crashed into a right-swinging car during a training ride in April, he got away with road rash and a bruised right knee and less than a week later he rode Rund um den Henninger Turm, though he did not ride the race to its education
Arvesen became runner-up in Paris–Tours. After engaging in a successful breakaway, he finished winning two centimeters ahead of number two. Arversen"s 2009 tour came to a disappointing end on Stage 10 just after passing Guéretired
Curiously, before the start of the 10th Stage he joked on the floor pretending he had fallen.
After a week of rumours, it was official on 10 September 2009 that Arvesen would be joining Team Sky from the 2010-season, along with fellow Norwegians Edvald Boasson Hagen and Lars Petter Nordhaug. The start of the 2010 season with Team Sky was marred by injury for Arvesen.
After winning the 1st stage of Tour of Qatar (TTT), Arvesen crashed on the following stage, breaking his collarbone. He returned to the bike in time to participate in Tirreno–Adriatico, and he has his eye set on the spring classics to come.
He ended his racing career after the 2011 season, but remained at Team Sky as a specialist coach.
He became a Sports Director with the team in 2015.