Josh Tarling is only 20 years old, yet his palmarès reflect more than a rider only in his second year of WorldTour racing. He’s the European and British time trial champion and came third in the discipline at the World Championships last year in Glasgow behind TT specialists Remco Evenepoel and Filippo Ganna. The young Brit also placed sixth in this year’s edition of the Tour of Flanders, demonstrating his prowess in the punchy Classic races, too.
Tarling is making his Olympic debut in Paris this weekend, taking on the individual time trial on the city’s streets on Saturday. He’s up against some of the world’s best, including Evenepoel and Ganna, but he’s going into the race with a favourite tag on his back – the first chance at a gold medal for Team Great Britain.
While Tarling was preparing for the 2024 Paris Olympics, Rouleur caught up with him to learn more about this time-trial sensation.
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
A professional cyclist, pretty much. I was young when I decided I wanted to be a pro. Six, maybe. My dad used to race, and I haven’t stopped racing or training since then. Recently I’ve been thinking that if I hadn’t become a professional cyclist, I’d be a professional MotoGP rider.
What’s your earliest memory of riding a bike?
Probably that experience of my dad. He used to race round Shrewsbury racecourse, and I used to ride round the car park because I was too young to race, riding no handed and stuff like that, on my mountain bike.
What is your least favourite thing about cycling?
The weather. I raced in the Tour Down Under and since then, it’s felt like I’ve been racing in freezing cold. I live in Andorra at the minute, and it gets snowy up there; I raced Gran Camiño, where it was raining every day. It was the same at Paris-Nice.
Read more: Josh Tarling on Olympic dreams, podiums with Wout van Aert and coping with pressure
Do you have any annoying habits?
I’ve just been given a VR headset for my birthday, I race cars on the Playstation in it and basically when I’m not on the bike I put the headset on and it means nobody can get hold of me.
What’s your proudest career moment so far?
All of the wins, I guess. But also, things like moving to Andorra and settling in. Moving out is what everybody wants to do and it was hard. That’s the thing off the bike…