European time trial champion Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers) successfully defended his British national time trial title on Wednesday, beating Max Walker (Astana Qazaqstan Development) into second place on the 30km course in Catterick.
The 20-year-old blitzed the course, setting by far the quickest time at the 15km intermediate checkpoint at attack time of 19:21 before going on to cross the line with a time of 39:22, an average speed of 45.74 kph.
Walker took second place, holding the hot seat for the final 20 minutes of the event after setting a strong time of 40:35. He’d beat Ethan Vernon (Israel-Premier Tech) into third place, his time a further 10 seconds off Tarling at 40:45.
“I was a bit nervous coming into it – there are a few guys on good form and everything is getting close to the Olympics and it’s a last chance to get a TT in so I was a bit stressed. I just committed and hung on," Tarling said after the finish.
"Last year, if you blew up, you could still roll fast, but the second lap this year I was three or four km an hour slower. It was way harder this year, but it’s all going well. I’m going to try and knuckle down after this and go to altitude for a few weeks. I need to sharpen up a bit, but I’m excited about the rest of the season.”
Oliver Knight (Cofidis) had earlier spent some time in the hot seat, having set the quickest time at both the 15km mark (20:56) and at the finish (41:19), beating Zeb Kyffin’s (TDT-Unibet) time of 42:24.
However, several of the top favourites, including a swathe of WorldTour pros, would make their runs later on. Max Walker would be next to go quickest, putting 44 seconds into Knight to go top with a time of 40:35.
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Samuel Watson’s (Groupama-FDJ) intermediate time of 20:15 put him top of the leaderboard at the midway point, but he’d fade as his ride went on and ended up second to Walker with a time of 40:58.
Ethan Vernon also put in a good ride, finishing with a 40:45 to nip into second place, 10 seconds down on Walker. Like Watson, Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) had also rode well at the 15km checkpoint with a time of 20:15, but he too faded and crossed the line well down with a time of 41:34.
Of course, his teammate, the reigning champion Tarling was the last man down the start ramp, and he met all expectations on the 30km course. He led by almost a minute over second place at the mid-race checkpoint, becoming the only man to beat the 20-minute barrier with a time of 19:21. He duly held his large advantage over the second half of the course to easily claim another national title.
Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor before being hired full-time. Her favourite races include the Paris-Roubaix, Tour de France Femmes, Tro-Bro Léon, and cycling's fourth Grand Tour, the Volta a Portugal.
