Tarling - from hospital bed to Tour de France in three weeks

Tarling - from hospital bed to Tour de France in three weeksImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Josh Tarling joined Netcompany Ineos, then called Ineos Grenadiers, in 2023ByGareth Rhys OwenBBC Sport WalesPublished1 minute agoCommentsThree weeks ago Josh Tarling's Tour de France appeared over.A high-speed crash at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes left the Netcompany Ineos rider with a broken collarbone, requiring surgery less than a month before cycling's biggest race.Now, just three weeks later, the 22-year-old Welshman will roll down the start ramp in Barcelona for his Tour de France debut.That should sound extraordinary.Perhaps the only reason it doesn't is because professional cycling has recently stretched 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.Tarling's comeback may not seem quite as astonishing, but it remains remarkable nonetheless.Reports suggested the Aberaeron rider was back on his bike just two days after surgery as the race against time to prove his fitness began.His selection - confirmed by Ineos on Wednesday alongside Thymen Arensman, 2019 winner Egan Bernal, Tobias Foss, Filippo Ganna, Dorian Godon, Michal Kwiatkowski and Kévin Vauquelin - also arrives at an important moment for British cycling.For much of the past decade, British fans barely had to search for a storyline at 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-ever stage winner.That golden generation is now beginning to give way to the next.Thomas and Cavendish have retired. Froome has yet to make it official but, with a new role in the tech industry and now into his fifth decade, British cycling has inevitably started looking towards the future.There are still world-class British ri...