Time trials can be cruel, the clock never lies. After finishing fourth, Great Britain's Josh Tarling was brutally honest about his performance in Zürich, his problems after the Paris Olympics and the mistakes he made in recent weeks as he tried to overcome perhaps the hardest moment in his young racing career.
The 20-year-old Welshman won the European title in 2023 and was third in the Glasgow World Championships, 48 seconds slower than Remco Evenepoel (Belgium). This year he was fourth at the Road World Championships, but 1:17 slower than the Belgian.
Tarling beat Stefan Küng (Switzerland), Brandon McNulty (United States) and Primož Roglič (Slovenia) in Zürich but that was of little consolation.
"I'm disappointed but to be honest, it's what I put in. I didn't do enough before, and I get what I get, don't I?" Tarling told Cyclingnews and Flobikes post race, openly admitting his mistakes.
Tarling finished fourth in the Paris Olympic Games time trial, just two seconds slower than bronze medallist Wout van Aert (Belgium) despite suffering a puncture on the wet Parisian roads. He was close to tears and admitted that he has struggled post Games, wrongly blaming himself for struggling with the post-Olympic decompression.
"Everything went wrong after the Olympics. No fault of anyone but mine. I just felt a bit out of depth and messed up," Tarling said.
"I didn't really know how to deal with it," he added.
"It's the first time I've made big sacrifices for things and then they didn't get a plan and I cracked a bit. I pushed everyone away. But in hindsight, I needed everyone, not the other way."
Tarling turned professional with Ineos Grenadiers in 2023, aged just 19. He quickly showed his talents, winning the European title, the British time trial title and two other time trials.
This year he won the British title again and impressed several times. However, the Olympic Games were his major goal and how he judges his second season.
"There were times where I was in a lot better shape than last year and we made some steps forward. But then I've made some steps backwards at the end of the season. So yeah, some ups and some downs," Tarling said of his 2024 season.
The season and especially the last few weeks have been a painful learning process.
"To be honest, I'm sick of learning, I just want to be good. Hopefully next year," Tarling concluded.
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