Joshua Tarling has just taken the biggest win of his young life – the World Junior Individual Time Trial Championships in Woolongong by 19 seconds from Hamish McKenzie of Australia at 49.395 kph, and he's been snapped up by the mighty INEOS team, continuing the trend for young talents to skip u23 and go straight to the World Tour.
Imagine that you’ve just realised your dream and signed with the world’s number one team, performed well on your debut and are looking forward to the next part of your season once your training camp in sunny Greece ends. Instead you have to get home to the US as quickly as possible to avoid being ‘locked down’ in Europe. That’s the situation Deceuninck – Quick-Step’s 2020 signing, US Elite Time Trial Champion, Ian Garrison found himself in just a few days ago.
When I think about the Elite World Championship Time Trial, I always ponder how many of these titles Anquetil, Merckx and Indurain would have won between them, had this event existed, ‘back in the day?’