“Not good, mate,” was Josh Tarling‘s evaluation of his effort within the time trial on the UCI Highway World Championships on Sunday afternoon.
A bronze medallist final yr, the Brit completed 23 seconds wanting the rostrum in Zurich, Switzerland, the place Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) soared to victory to defend his world title.
Tarling bought off to a quick begin on the 46.1km course, inserting third on the first of three time checks, simply 12 seconds behind the chief, Evenepoel. He then misplaced time on the climb to the second verify, which he was unable to tug again on the flat drag alongside Lake Zurich. His ending time of 54:18 left him 1:17 adrift of gold.
As he walked by means of the media zone afterwards, the 20-year-old minimize a downbeat determine. “I by no means bought going,” he mentioned. “I conserved after which by no means emptied, after which I used to be empty, if you happen to get me? It by no means got here to me.”
Tarling had felt the identical feeling of disappointment on the Paris Olympics final month, the place he additionally completed fourth, having held hopes of successful.
“I’m not the place I wish to be. I simply had a tough time,” Tarling mentioned. “I cracked after the Olympics after which had a nasty Vuelta [a España], and simply tousled. It did not go effectively.
“I simply really feel unhealthy for everybody that put extra in than me, when it comes to the bike and the gear and BC [British Cycling] with all the assistance. I simply let myself down with the coaching. I mainly felt sorry for myself and let some folks down.”
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The younger time trialist, maybe overly vital of himself, was nonetheless stronger than quite a lot of the WorldTour’s strongest specialists. Even on a self-professed unhealthy day, Tarling clocked a mean pace of virtually 51km/h on the end line, sooner than former world champion Tobias Foss (Norway), and 2021 Olympic gold medallist Primož Roglič (Slovenia), among the many 59 starters.
At August’s Olympics, the Brit completed two seconds off bronze medallist Wout van Aert, after struggling a merciless puncture on the moist Parisian roads. He went on to make his Grand Tour debut on the Vuelta later that month, the place he positioned sixth within the opening day time trial, earlier than withdrawing on stage 9.
His subsequent competitors would be the six-stage Cro Race in Croatia with Ineos Grenadiers subsequent month. “I’m going to try to get it going once more for among the guys in the remainder of the season, however we’ll see,” he mentioned in Zurich, including with a watch on subsequent yr’s World Championships: “Onto [20]25, eh?”
