This week’s British National Championships time trial served as the perfect dress rehearsal six weeks out from the Paris Olympics for Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers).
Twelve months prior, Tarling had come to the Championships as a talented teenager to spring something of a surprise on his longer-standing peers to win the senior title for the first time. Things couldn’t have been more different this time around, with the European champion almost a shoo-in to claim the jersey.
On Wednesday, Tarling crushed his competition to defend his title on the 30-kilometre course around the Catterick Garrison army barracks, beating second-place Max Walker (Astana Qazaqstan Development Team) by 1:14.
This year, Tarling’s season is built around the 27th of July, the day of the men’s Olympic time trial. The National Championships were viewed as “the last big hit” before that goal, according to Ineos Grenadiers directeur sportif Ian Stannard, on a course not too dissimilar from the one in Paris, with a couple of testing but short ascents and technical sections.
Ineos Grenadiers and British Cycling are investing a great deal of effort and expertise into Tarling’s Olympic tilt. The British Championships gave them the opportunity to see where his form is at and to make some final tweaks, including trialling a new position on the TT bike.
“I think we're getting there. There's a few things I need to sharpen up, but now it's slowly progressing,” Tarling told Cyclingnews after the podium ceremony.
“It was a new position, so it was quite a drastic change definitely from last year, but from the start of the season as well. I'm a bit tight in places, but it was good to get an all-out effort in the position. I'll train a bit more in it, and hopefully, it'll all get sharper and tidier."
There wasn’t much in the way of new tech being tested this week, with Tarling and his Ineos Grenadiers team-mates, Ethan Hayter and Conor Swift, all competing with a large single front chainring, which is quickly becoming the norm for these types of efforts.
Stannard commented that the 20-year-old was “training well, progressing well” en route to Paris, adding that the course in north Yorkshire “was a shorter time trial and it was quite technical with the climb and how steep it was, so he's done a great ride there and, yeah, onwards and upwards.”
After the road race on Sunday in Saltburn, Tarling will head to his first-ever altitude camp for his final Olympic preparations. He exudes confidence in everything he does and there is no doubt that he has only one form of precious metal on his mind: gold.
“The guy has big ambitions, so all in for it and see how it goes,” Stannard replied when asked if the top step of the Olympic podium is really within reach.
From the outside, Tarling’s trajectory seems to only be going one way, and Wednesday’s title defence certainly backed up that sentiment. However, things haven’t all been plain sailing in recent weeks.
Tarling suffered a broken bone in his knee at Paris Roubaix in April, which meant spending several weeks off the bike. He only returned to training on the 9th of May and to racing at the Critérium du Dauphiné a few weeks later.
“It's put him back a little bit, you know, and it would have been nice for him to win that Dauphiné TT, he was keen for that. But, you know, it's also slowed him down a little bit towards the Olympics and that’s possibly a good thing,” Stannard said, seeing the possible upside to Tarling’s injury as decreasing the risk of overtraining before his big goal.
Tarling said that he feels the effect of the lost training, but is trusting the team’s process.
“I'm not as sharp as I'd like to be, but I think in terms of fitness, I'm alright. We did a lot of non-riding stuff [during his injury recovery], so a bit of swimming, a bit of gym and stuff," he said. “Fitness-wise, I'm alright, but it's not as smooth as I'd like it to be. I'm hacking away a bit, but it'll come.”
GC ambitions
After the Olympics, Tarling is hoping for a spot on Ineos Grenadiers’ squad for La Vuelta a España. He has one eye on the opening stage of this year’s edition, a 12-kilometre solo effort from Lisbon to Oeiras, admitting “I know there’s a prologue but it's a bit of a grim one, so we'll see.”
The Vuelta is often used by teams to blood their promising young riders at a first Grand Tour, as the pressure and attention are less intense than at the Tour de France or Giro d’Italia. The parcours, however, is no less demanding than the other three-week races, with the climbs and heat of Spain often making the Vuelta seem like the toughest grand tour of the year.
However, Tarling has already shown his climbing abilities this year. He put in a surprising performance on the mountains of the Dauphiné, supporting team leader Carlos Rodríguez deep into the hardest stages of the race.
It’s tempting to immediately draw parallels between Tarling and another winner of multiple British time-trial championships, Bradley Wiggins, who hauled his similarly large frame to a famous Tour de France win in 2012, and Britain's first.
When probed on whether we might one day see the Welshman make a similar transition from pure time triallist to overall classification contender, Tarling said “I'd like to. I've got to get skinny first, though.”
To give some perspective, Tarling is reported to weigh around 20 kilograms more than Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), winner of the last two Tours de France.
“I'd like to,” he said, repeating himself, seeming to confirm that this is something he has thought a lot about, “but they're f**king good, you know? We'll see.”
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