When Filippo Ganna's Paris-Roubaix chances were derailed on the very first sector of cobbles, Josh Tarling stepped up to lead Ineos Grenadiers but he was soon in trouble after going deep to try to stay in the chase group behind the aggressive attacks from Tadej Pogačar, Mathieu van der Poel and Mads Pedersen.
Ganna and Ineos Grenadiers hit the Troisvilles a Inchy sector on the front with 163km to race, but then the Italian was seen slipping back the long line of riders, trying to keep his bike upwards and searching for his team car.
He was serviced and began to chase but was timed at over a minute behind. Ben Turner and Connor Swift desperately drove the chase as the race accelerated ahead of them on the cobbles and road sectors.
They eventually closed the gap with 125km to go, after a 35km chase. Ganna was briefly seen near the front, but suffered and slipped back after the Forest of Arenberg. He fought on, Ineos tried to again drag him back into the race but he could only finish 13th at 4:45.
He was a pre-race contender after his second place at Milan-San Remo and third at the E3 Saxo Classic. He was understandably disappointed and silent.
The 21-year-old Tarling had stayed in the peloton, and stepped-up from his youthful understudy role when Ganna faltered. He was seen in the group that caught Van der Poel's and Pogačar's surge after Arenberg but then he cracked and slipped back.
Tarling eventually finished 52nd at 11:42, a result that said little of struggles in the race and recently during the Classics.
"It's annoying, I know what I'm doing. I put myself in the right place but just had nothing when I was there. It is what it is," Tarling told a small scrum of English-speaking media, including Cyclingnews, in the centre of Roubaix velodrome.
"I love this race. I can put myself in the right place but when I'm there, I just need to finish it off. I felt good after Arenberg but the lights just went out."
He revealed he has struggled in recent weeks.
"I'm struggling eating, it's frustrating," he said. "After Dwars door Vlaanderen, I was sick. I couldn't eat, you know, for four or five days. I tried to replenish it and get back going again but I was terrible in the week."
Tarling's spring campaign ended in Roubaix.
He is next expected to race at the Giro d'Italia in May. It will be his second Grand Tour after riding eight stages of the 2024 Vuelta a España. With Ganna riding the Tour de France, Tarling will target the stage 2 and 10 time trials and perhaps aim to reach Rome and so complete his first Grand Tour.
"I want to move on now to other business," he said, trying to move on from disappointment.
