Tour de France: Josh Turling – Tour from hospital bed in three weeks

Josh Turling’s Tour de France dream came true three weeks ago.

A high-speed crash at the Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes left NetCompany rider Inos with a broken collarbone, requiring surgery less than a month before cycling’s biggest race.

But significantly, the 22-year-old Welshman will take to the start ramp in Barcelona for his Tour de France debut.

That should sound extraordinary, but perhaps the only reason it isn’t is because professional cycling has recently expanded the boundaries of what seems possible.

Last year, Norway’s Jonas Abrahamsen returned to the Tour just nine days after breaking his collarbone. He underlined that recovery by winning a stage.

Turling’s return may not seem quite as surprising, but it is still remarkable.

Reports suggested the Aberaron rider was back on his bike just two days after surgery as the race against time began to prove his fitness.

His selection – confirmed by Ineos on Wednesday along with Thiemen Arensman, 2019 winner Egan Bernal, Tobias Foss, Filippo Ganna, Dorian Godon, Michal Kwatkowski and Kevin Vakulin – also arrives at a key moment for British cycling.

For most of the past decade, British fans have barely had to look for a storyline in the Tour de France.

Chris Froome won four yellow jerseys. Geraint Thomas became the first Welshman to win the race. Mark Cavendish rewrote the record books as the Tour’s greatest stage winner.

That golden generation is now giving way to the next.

Thomas and Cavendish retired. Froome has yet to make it official but, with a new role in the tech industry and now in its fifth decade, British cycling is inevitably starting to look to the future.

There are still world-class British riders in the peloton. Adam Yates remains among the sport’s elite stage racers, albeit now backed by Tadez Pogacar. Another bright young talent from Britain, Oscar Only, will miss the tour entirely due to injury.

This leaves Turling as the most intriguing British story in this year’s race, having already established himself among the world’s elite time trialists.

“I’m very happy and really looking forward to it,” he told the Ineos website.

“We have a power team so I’m really excited with the team we have for the time trials and the stages, so we’re going to have a good tour together.”

his Giro d’Italia stage win Last year many long predictions confirmed huge potential.

World championship titles, Olympic medals and Grand Tour stage wins all show realistic ambition.