Despite breaking his collarbone in a nasty crash at the Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes just 19 days ago, Josh Tarling has miraculously recovered in time to make his debut at the Tour de France, saying on Wednesday that he is "back to normal."
Tarling was revealed as part of Netcompany Ineos' eight-man stage-hunting squad four days prior to the Grand Départ in Barcelona, despite his recent injury placing those plans into serious doubt.
He crashed on stage 6 of the renamed Dauphiné on June 12 after impressing in the team time trial and being part of that day's breakaway, but after a rapid surgery turnaround, he was cleared to start, and is fairly certain everything is back on track.
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Speaking to international media on Wednesday, Tarling said his recovery "was pretty good, mate, to be honest," in his typical laid-back style, sitting slightly off-screen as Netcompany Ineos presented their eight riders for questions over a video call.
"I went straight to Germany to get it pinned, so it was nice and strong straight away," Tarling explained.
"Then I could go back to [camp] with everybody, obviously a couple of days on the turbo, but yeah, I'm back to normal really, maybe a bit less on the TT bike than I would have done, but to be honest it's been pretty smooth, physio and all that stuff."
Recovery time for a fractured clavicle is typically six to twelve weeks, so with Tarling feeling "normal" after just three, it's nothing short of a remarkable recovery. But he isn't the first rider to manage something exactly like this.
Just a season ago, it looked as though rotten luck had come at the worst time for Jonas Abrahamensen (Uno-X Mobikity), who broke his collarbone on stage 1 of the Baloise Belgium Tour on June 18 and looked set to miss the start of the Tour on July 5.
With even less time to recover than Tarling, Abrahamsen went on to make the start, ride an incredible race as one of the key breakaway animators, and win stage 11 in Toulouse less than a month after his injury. Tarling has the example to follow, and he will be just as key to Ineos' ambitions, especially in the absence of GC star Oscar Onley, and with a team built around aggressive stage-hunting.
Tarling may be lacking his full 100% form, but as one of the best time trial riders in the world, his efforts could still prove vital to the opening day team time trial in Barcelona and the race for the first yellow jersey, where Ineos will be eyeing top spot.
Alongside him in the engine room will be two former individual time trial world champions, Filippo Ganna and Tobias Foss, with more power being provided by Thymen Arensman, Dorian Godon, GC leader Kévin Vauquelin, with the Tour experience of Egan Bernal and Michał Kwiatkowski to boot.
"I’m just super happy and really looking forward to it," said Tarling on the team's website. "We’ve got a power team so I’m really excited with the team that we have for the TT and stages, so we’re going to have a good Tour together."
The Welshman is already a Grand Tour stage winner from the Giro d'Italia in 2025, and this will be the third three-week race appearance of his young career.
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