Josh Tarling has been playing Pictionary for 10 minutes with Cat Ferguson, another one of Britain’s young superstars. He’s drawn a decent team car – “an Ineos Grenadier,” he points out, always on brand – has accurately guessed ‘team radio’ to one of Ferguson’s more interesting drawings and rebutted her for writing a ‘4’ when illustrating the ‘Olympics’, the ‘4’ representing his fourth place at Paris 2024. “I’m trying to forget about that!” he moans.
It’s clear, in a back room at Rouleur Live, that a career as a professional cyclist was the right option over, say, a university degree in art. “I’d find that harder, ey,” he says of the student lifestyle he feasibly would be having in a parallel universe where he wasn’t already a two-time elite British champion. “Cycling, I know what I’m doing – but I don’t think I know what I’m doing in the real world. Cycling there’s always a way of winning, but to go to uni and get a job with so many options, or not a lot of options if you’re not clever enough like I am, I wouldn’t know what to do.”
He’s harsh on his intelligence but is adamant he has no regrets about the choices he’s made. “You’d feel grim,” he says when mention of regular student nights out is brought up. “Off-season, it’s OK because the whole year is so intense, but I couldn’t do it all the time.”
Good for him, then, that cycling wouldn’t permit it. In his two years in the WorldTour, the 20-year-old has already made quite the impression, comfortably settling into the rigours of top-tier professional racing with aplomb. “You come in and think you know everything, but actually you don’t,” Tarling says. “In the juniors, you never rode for anyone, never looked after other people. The first race is so alien – it’s different racing.”
Yet it can’t be denied that he, and so many others from his Generation Z, have made the transition from junior to pro racing look so easy. “Maybe because I’ve learned earlier, I’ve got more craft and know-how,” he suggests. “It’s not only about winning stuff but learning about counterattacking and timings. It’s all that in the bunch stuff, how to control people, how to look after someone behind you.”
Six pro wins, all against the clock, are currently the highlights on his palmarès, and he possesses the same insatiable hunger that typically characterises the great champions. “I hope my peak…