By Ian Gordon
Josh Tarling underlined his status as one of Britain’s cycling talents with a superb second place in the Criterium de Dauphine’s individual time trial.
The European champion took second place behind world champ Remco Evenepoel but claimed the scalp of Olympic champ Primoz Roglic who was third.
One of the first riders off the start ramp, Tarling – battling back after a knee injury – powered around the 34.4km course between St Germain-Maval and Neulise to clock 42 minutes six seconds.
April 7th – breaks bone in knee
May 9th – tentatively back on bike
June 5th – lumpy TT finishing just 17 secs off the 1st at the Dauphine in 2nd place behind the world champAwesome ride from @joshytarling on that course on so little prep and looking good for the goals ahead. pic.twitter.com/LDN1EMOIF5
— Michael Tarling (@tarling_michael) June 5, 2024
Tarling spent two minutes in the hot seat as rider after rider failed to match his time until Evenepoel claimed victory on stage four by 17 seconds. Roglic finished third 22 seconds further adrift.
“It felt slow,” Tarling said. “It’s the tarmac that’s quite grippy, so it felt hard to get the speed up, especially over the top of the climbs. I think I did a decent enough ride, so fingers crossed.”
Belgian rider Evenepoel now leads the standings in the key Tour de France warm-up for many of the riders by 33-seconds over Roglic while American Matteo Jorgenson is third, 1:04 behind.
Evenepoel went through the first time check two seconds up on Tarling. The 20-year-old Welshman had a narrow lead at the second check point before being pipped at the finish.