Three weeks ago, Josh Tarling’s Tour de France dream came true.
A high-speed crash at the Tour of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes left the Netcompany Ineos rider with a broken collarbone and required surgery less than a month before cycling’s biggest race.
What is remarkable, however, is that the 22-year-old Welshman will roll off the start ramp in Barcelona on his Tour de France debut.
This should sound unusual, but perhaps the only reason it isn’t is because professional cycling has recently pushed the boundaries of what seems possible.
Last year, Norway’s Jonas Abrahamsen returned to the Tour just nine days after breaking his collarbone. He highlighted this recovery by winning the stage.
Tarling’s return may not seem all that surprising, but it remains remarkable nonetheless.
Reports said the Aberaeron rider was back on his bike just two days after surgery as the time trial began to prove his fitness.
His selection, confirmed by Ineos on Wednesday alongside Thiemen Arensman, 2019 winner Egan Bernal, Tobias Voss, Filippo Ganna, Dorian Godon, Michal Kwiatkowski and Kevin Vauquelin, also comes at an important moment for British cycling.
For much of the last decade, British fans had little need to look for a Tour de France storyline.
Chris Froome won four yellow jerseys. Geraint Thomas became the first Welshman to win the race. Mark Cavendish has rewritten the record books as the Tour’s greatest stage winner.
This golden generation is now beginning to give way to the next.
Thomas and Cavendish retired. Froome has yet to make it official, but with a new role in the tech industry and now entering his fifth decade, the British cyclist has inevitably begun to look to the future.
There are still world class British riders in the peloton. Adam Yates remains one of the sport’s elite riders, although he now mainly supports Tadej Pogačar. Oscar Only, another of Britain’s brightest young talents, will miss the Tour altogether due to injury.
This makes Tarling perhaps the most intriguing British storyline in this year’s race, having already established itself among the world’s elite time trialists.
“I’m just really happy and really looking forward to it,” he told the Ineos website.
“We have a strong team, so I’m really happy with the team we have for the time trials and stages, so we’re going to have a good tour together.”
His stage win at the Giro d’Italia last year confirmed the enormous potential that many had long predicted.
World titles, Olympic medals and Grand Tour victories all seem like realistic ambitions.