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 will start early, next year maybe,” he says, restless to keep adding to his win tally. Time trialists are typically peculiar with their equipment, perfectionists at work. What does he obsess the most over? “Stressing about getting better,” he says. “Every race, even if I go well in, I think about what could have done better, what could have been lighter or whatever.”
Another frequent thought in the past few months has been one of appreciation. Both he and his brother, 18-year-old Finlay, who will ride for Israel Premier Tech Academy in 2025, wouldn’t be where they are without the support of their parents. Recently, their father, Michael, tweeted that “we begged, borrowed, remortgaged multiple times and loaded credit cards to give our lads the support they needed. Always 2nd/3rd hand equipment until last year junior when lucky enough to get sponsors. We’re financially screwed as a result.”
“I took it for granted, every weekend racing,” Tarling admits. “It’s only when you leave that, go to Andorra [where he now lives] for the first time and you realise you have to pay for everything. There’s not a day that you don’t leave the house and pay for something. And it’s not even bike stuff [for parents supporting youngsters]: you need a big enough car to get to races, entries and other stuff. At the time, I didn't appreciate it enough, but now I do. I was doing cyclocross four years ago, and even then had two pretty identical bikes. Now you need three bikes and 10 sets of wheels. I wouldn’t know how and where to start.”
For the moment, one half of the Tarling brothers can just focus on fulfilling his enormous potential. He dreams of Olympic and world title medals, of winning Paris-Roubaix, and riding the Tour de France. But he’s good at breaking down each big goal into achievable steps along the way. “If you look too far ahead, you end up worrying about what you’re going to do in 2028,” he says. “The year is so long, there is so much going on. Every race is a different goal and I want to be selected for different races. I’ll take it season by season, pick something, get in a position to win, and the team will back it and help me.”
