Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers) piled all the pressure on himself at the UAE Tour when he told Cyclingnews that he not only wanted to win the stage 2 time trial but that he "needed it" after a rocky patch of form last season knocked his confidence.
However, the British time trial champion showed no signs of a rider lacking in belief as he not only delivered but did so with dominance and an average speed of 56.6kph over the 12.2km flat course on Al Hudayriyat Island.
He beat fellow ITT specialist Stefan Bissegger (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and overall race favourite Tadej Pogačar (UAE Emirates-XRG) by 13 and 18 seconds respectively to take the win and move into the race leader's red jersey.
Tarling's triumph brought Ineos Grenadiers their second win in as many days after Michał Kwiatkowski won the Clásica Jaén on Sunday and the team's first at WorldTour level since June 2024 at the Critérium du Dauphiné.
"I think I had a bit of a bumpy season at the end of last yeah. So I needed it, and it just brings confidence," said Tarling during his post-race press conference, echoing his thoughts ahead of stage 1 to Cyclingnews that "I want it. I need it, and I think the team does as well."
"With Kwiato yesterday and me today as well, for the team it's going to be really exciting."
Tarling also shed some light on his previous struggles, with bad luck and going up against some of the finest time trial riders in the world causing him to miss out on his biggest goals at Worlds and the Olympics in 2024.
"Remco didn't help," he admitted frankly with a smile. "No, I think it was a mix of bad luck and I'm up against people like Remco [Evenepoel] and Ganna, so it's tough.
"With the Vuelta, I was struggling a bit after the Olympics anyway, so that was that, but other than that one I think actually, the season was pretty good last year."
Pushing a monster 68-tooth chainring on the front and pairing it was an 11-tooth cog at the rear at its smallest, Tarling "mashed" his way around the course in a huge gear, crediting a "grim" camp up at Mount Teide and some "horrible" efforts at altitude for re-finding his best shape.
"I did my first altitude camp in Teide, that was grim, but, in terms of with the TT, we just continued what we were doing," said Tarling, when asked how he'd got back to winning ways.
"You know, [working on] the position, discipline and TT efforts as always, some at altitude, which were horrible, but I think we made some steps."
While Tarling was confident, as one of the best time trial riders in the world, the threat of Pogačar was always something he took into account, even on a course that didn't particularly suit him.
"For sure, you can never not think about him when you're in any race," Tarling said. "I think on this course, maybe, flat and short, I have more of a chance. But yeah, for sure, he was on the mind."
And the world champion will certainly be on Tarling's mind tomorrow on the summit finish up Jebel Jais, where 10 bonus seconds for victory and an eight-second gap would see Pogačar move into the lead of the race and in prime position to win his team's home event for the third time in his career.
"I'm not going to let it go easy tomorrow," Tarling said,
"I think obviously Carlos [Rodríguez] has a better chance on the climb than I do, and well … Tadej. But I'm going to try and hang on as long as long as I can and I'll take opportunities if they come. Hopefully, there's some wind at some point and we can try and rip it up."
Whether Tarling keeps the jersey or not, his victory today nonetheless marks a possibly huge turning point for the British team, added to Kwiatkowski's victory in Spain yesterday, with a brutally disappointing 2024 season seeing them experience a huge downturn in results.
Finally back in the wins at a pro race and now a WorldTour level race, Ineos will look to kick on and build themselves towards the winning status they previously enjoyed throughout all of the 2010s. Tarling will be key to that re-discovery of form and he's got his eye set on Paris-Roubaix as his main goal for the year.
