In his very first professional season in cycling, British youngster Joshua Tarling was crowned European champion in the individual time trial.
The 19-year-old, who had already caused a surprise by taking bronze at the World Championships in Glasgow in August, outdid the stars at the title fights in Drenthe in the Netherlands and took victory after 29.8 kilometres with an outstanding performance.
For Tarling, who distanced the Swiss defending champion Stefan Bissegger by 42.9 seconds, it was only the third professional victory of his career. Third place went to Belgian superstar Wout van Aert (0:43).
For the two German starters Maximilian Walscheid and Miguel Heidemann, however, it was only enough for 15th and 21st place. The race was overshadowed by the heavy crash of two-time European champion Stefan Küng, who got caught on a barrier and finished eleventh, bleeding and with a broken helmet.
The outstanding man, however, was Tarling, who won with an average speed of 56.7 km/h, making him the fastest European Championship time trial. The Welshman had ridden in the juniors last year and won the World Championship title.
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