There are days when cycling stops being just sport. It becomes a refuge, a way to try to make sense of pain, to find a few hours of normalcy when everything around you seems to have collapsed. For Joshua Tarling, the time trial in Monaco, the opening stage of the Vuelta a España, was above all this.

The twenty-two-year-old Welsh rider arrived at the start of the Spanish race just days after the tragedy that shook his family and the entire cycling world: the death of his younger brother Finlay, just 19 years old, a promising cyclist, hit by a vehicle during the Tour of Portugal. Terrible news that arrived just as Joshua was supposed to be preparing for one of the major appointments of his season.

Not because the pain had passed or to forget, Joshua Tarling thought that getting back on the bike was the only way to rise again after the tragedy.

And so, on the roads of Monaco, he transformed an impossible week into an extraordinary performance: third place in the 9.4-kilometer time trial, just four seconds behind Tadej Pogacar, the stage winner, and also behind Ethan Hayter. A result that gave him the white jersey as best young rider and which takes on a completely different value when you look at what happened in the days before.

"What does this mean to me? Not much," Tarling said after the finish line, almost wanting to downplay the result in the face of something infinitely greater. "I'm still happy with my performance, and especially with the fact that I can focus on other things in my life. I'm happy and, above all, very grateful to my team for allowing me to come here and race. I gave everything on the bike. Obviously my legs weren't at their best, but it went pretty well anyway."

Finlay was only 19 years old. He was a young rider, with the same love for cycling that had accompanied Joshua since childhood. His life was cut short during the eighth stage of the Tour of Portugal, when he was hit by a vehicle that entered the race course. A tragedy that left the Tarling family speechless and that deeply shook the entire cycling world.

As if that weren't enough, Joshua also had to deal with the recent death of his grandfather. A week marked by two losses, two wounds difficult even to speak about.

At a time like this, participation in the Vuelta seemed anything but certain. Yet Tarling wanted to be there. The decision, according to team manager Geraint Thomas, came above all from the rider himself, who from the beginning had expressed the desire to return to racing.

The team did nothing but support him in his choice, putting all possible support at his disposal. Because sometimes normalcy too can become a form of help.

Geraint Thomas, a former rider and now sports director, knows well the value that returning to routine can have after a traumatic moment. "It was fantastic to have him back here. He really wanted to get back to racing and his daily work, to find some stability in the routine and with the team, and to make sure everything proceeded as normally as possible," Thomas explained.

It wasn't necessary to ask him to be a hero. It wasn't necessary to expect a great performance from him. It was enough to let him be Joshua again, the rider who gets on his bike and pedals.

"You can't imagine what that kid went through last week. To be able to deliver a performance like that after a week like that is incredible. It shows his class, as an athlete and as a person. We will try to keep everything as normal as possible and support him as best we can."

Tarling tackled the 9.4 kilometers of the opening time trial with impressive concentration. It was impossible to know how much the week just passed would have affected his performance. But when the stopwatch stopped, his name was there, ahead of almost everyone and with the white jersey on his shoulders.

A result that, under normal circumstances, would have been celebrated as one of the great performances of the day. In this case, instead, it takes on a more intimate meaning.

Tarling didn't seek technical explanations, didn't talk about watts, aerodynamics or strategies. He simply said he gave everything. "I gave everything on the bike," he repeats.

The Spanish race has just begun and no one can know what will happen in the coming days. Tarling will have to face mountains, transfers, fatigue and three weeks of racing. He will have difficult moments, inevitably. He will also have moments when his thoughts return home.

But now he is here, with the white jersey on his shoulders, with a team that chose to protect him and with a bicycle that, at least for a few hours, allowed him to focus on something other than pain and to look ahead again.