So much can occur in 24 hours. On Monday, Sam Watson was out on a coaching journey, when he acquired a late call-up to race the Tour de Romandie in Switzerland. Quick ahead to Tuesday afternoon, and the Ineos Grenadiers rider was pulling on the race’s yellow chief’s jersey, the winner of the prologue.
The 23-year-old Brit was the quickest on a technical 3.44km course in Saint-Imer. His time of 4 minutes and 33 seconds – a mean velocity of 45.3.km/h – noticed him win by lower than three tenths of a second forward of UAE Staff Emirates XRG’s Ivo Oliveira.
“All I felt was ache, to be trustworthy,” Watson stated afterwards. “I crossed the road and I didn’t know I used to be main till the primary interview. It’s fairly a pleasant shock.
“Yesterday I used to be out coaching in Andorra, one and a half hours from dwelling, and I received a name from the group saying, ‘Get to the airport as quickly as you possibly can since you’re racing Romandie tomorrow.’ And right here I’m with a victory, it’s fairly particular.”
The win marked the second of Watson’s younger profession, and his first at WorldTour degree.
“I don’t suppose it’s actually set in but,” he stated. “To say I’ve received my first WorldTour race with Ineos, my first win with them, is a little bit of a dream.
“It undoubtedly provides me some confidence. I used to be on the finish of fairly a tough, three-day [training] block. We are able to actually go into the following days with confidence. On paper, they go well with me.”
Whereas some riders opted for street bikes for Tuesday’s unconventionally quick race in opposition to the clock, Watson was amongst those that used a full time trial set-up.
Interviewed earlier than the the ultimate riders had completed, the Brit stated he felt “horrendous” after his quick, all-out effort.
“My head is simply pounding, to be trustworthy. It’s not good,” he stated, earlier than happening to disclose for the primary time: “I solely discovered I used to be coming to this race yesterday.”
Movistar’s Iván Roméo stuffed out the prologue’s podium, three seconds adrift of Watson. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Fast-Step) positioned ninth as the perfect of the overall classification favourites, simply 4 seconds down.
So quick was the time trial, that solely 10 seconds separated the primary rider from the twenty seventh.
The six-day Tour de Romandie continues on Tuesday with stage one. It can shut with a time trial in Geneva on Sunday.
