Ffosyffin cyclist Josh Tarling, 17, has done it again, winning silver at the World Cycling Championships in Belgium in the Time Trial.

The championships are held once a year and bring the best cyclists in the world to compete for medals in the time trial and the road race.

Josh was selected to ride for the British team following a string of good performances both in the UK and internationally and was the only first year junior in the British men’s team. He was selected to compete in both the time trial and the road race.

The time trial was up first and was held over a flat 22.3km course between Knokke-Heist on the north coast and the historic city of Bruges. Frustratingly unseeded, Josh was the second rider of the 87 strong field to set off and knew he would have to compete without the benefit of time checks on his rivals.

The initial section through town was technical and Josh focused on gaining time kicking out of the corners. Once onto the wider roads he set the fastest time at the first intermediate time check and then powered on to cross the line with a time 25 minutes and 57 seconds.

With only two riders having finished at that point he knew he was the fastest time but then had to wait for the other riders to finish. This turned out to be quite an ordeal having to sit on stage with the full glare of the crowd and the TV audience looking for his reaction as each rider crossed the line.

Unfortunately, Gustav Wang, an 18-year-old rider form Denmark knocked Josh off the top spot with a time 20 seconds faster but Josh’s time lasted the rest of the day and was good enough to place second and for him to take the silver medal. A massive achievement from a rider that hasn’t been able to compete abroad as much this year under Covid rules preventing British riders form travelling until very recently.

Next up on Friday morning was the tough road race. This brought together a field of 172 of the best riders in the world who would compete over eight laps of a tough, technical circuit in Leuven for a total distance of 122km. Although Josh is a strong rider he was asked to do a job for his teammates and strike out early in a breakaway. This would put the stronger French, Belgian, German and American teams under pressure and force them to chase while the other British riders kept sheltered from the wind.

Josh is a bit of a breakaway specialist and managed to break clear on the first lap in the company of a rider from the Czech Republic and Germany. The three riders worked very well together ahead of a frenetic chasing bunch and despite the attempts to reel them in they extended their lead to just over a minute at half distance. As the race wore on the speed in the bunch picked up but, somehow, Josh’s breakaway managed to hold off the chase until the start of the penultimate lap, a breakaway distance of over 55 miles.

Once back in what was left of the bunch things took a turn for the worst with a broken spoke for Josh requiring a change to the spare bike. Unfortunately, despite regaining the bunch quickly Josh’s race was done and he trailed in 48th of the 90 finishers but having done a perfect job for his teammates.

Next up for Josh is the junior version of the famous Paris-Roubaix raid race in northern France on 3 October followed by a tough three-day stage race in Belgium and Holland, the Axel Tour, before taking a well earned end of season break.