Just under a year ago, Josh Tarling was a great young prospect but he hadn't yet podiumed at the World Championships individual time trial, taken a WorldTour win at 19 or claimed the European ITT title. He was instead battling his way to the Roubaix Velodrome, over the race time limit and exhausted.
The young Brit was similarly empty when he arrived at the finish of Dwars door Vlaanderen on Wednesday, with his jersey white with salt from sweat and struggling to catch his breath., But this time he was sixth, some 130 places higher than he’d finished at Paris-Roubaix in 2023.
