{"id":88583,"date":"2025-08-24T01:33:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T01:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/88583\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T01:33:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T01:33:09","slug":"how-fast-can-you-be-at-the-airport-the-bizarre-story-of-2-riders-who-had-to-go-to-the-vuelta-last-minute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/88583\/","title":{"rendered":"“How fast can you be at the airport?” The bizarre story of 2 riders who had to go to the Vuelta last minute"},"content":{"rendered":"

On paper, it sounds simple: a rider drops out of your Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a<\/a> lineup, so you call in a replacement. Bahrain Victorious<\/a> and INEOS Grenadiers<\/a> both had eight riders on the start podium in Turin on Saturday, but getting them there was anything but straightforward. Ben Turner<\/a> (INEOS) and Finlay Pickering (Bahrain) shared with IDLProCycling.com the bizarre story of their last-minute call-ups, following the withdrawal of Lucas Hamilton, who was sick and a hotel injury sustained by Damiano Caruso<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with Turner, who had just come off the Tour of Poland, where he won a stage and the points classification. Riding high on form, he was competing in the Renewi Tour and even finished sixth on the opening day, clearly with more to come, until he suddenly got the call. \u201cThe last 24 hours were bizarre. I was racing full gas in the Renewi Tour, and then Thursday evening, on the way back to the hotel after stage 2, I got the message that they needed me in the Vuelta.\u201d<\/p>\n

With INEOS Grenadiers by his side and Belgian airports nearby, it all came together quickly. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a problem for me, so I flew out Friday at 6:00 a.m., and now I\u2019m here,\u201d Turner laughed on Saturday morning. It\u2019s a quick switch, of course, but the tall British rouleur wasn\u2019t making a fuss. \u201cIt\u2019s tough, but this is cycling, the sport where you show up when you\u2019re needed. So you reset your focus and give everything for the new goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had the Tour of Britain and some Belgian races on my schedule, but now I\u2019m riding my second grand tour of the year,\u201d said Turner, referring to the Giro d\u2019Italia, which he completed earlier this season. He had already ridden the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a in 2022, and took part in the Tour de France in both 2023 and 2024. Turner is looking forward to what lies ahead. \u201cI\u2019ve got a good feeling, hopefully that pays off in the Vuelta. We\u2019ve got a lot of options in the team, so I\u2019m going to do my best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo<\/p>\n

\"ben<\/p>\n

Ben Turner<\/p>\n

Pickering calls it \u201clucky\u201d how he got from Andorra to the Vuelta<\/p>\n

Pickering\u2019s story was even a little crazier. While Turner got his call on Thursday evening, the 22-year-old from Bahrain Victorious didn\u2019t hear anything until Friday. \u201cI was at home in Andorra and training like normal. I was first reserve on the list, so I was still following a training schedule, always with the thought in the back of my mind that something might happen,\u201d he recalled. Pickering had just raced the Tour of Burgos in August, so he was still in race rhythm.<\/p>\n

But anyone familiar with Andorra knows it\u2019s not exactly easy to get to the Vuelta\u2019s starting city, Turin, in a single day on a Friday. \u201cActually, I was lucky. I was having problems with my wheels, so I hadn\u2019t started training yet that day. I was on my way to the bike shop to pick them up when I got a call: \u2018How fast can you get to the airport?\u2019 Because I hadn\u2019t started training yet, it all went pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith that, I was also lucky to find a taxi driver on Friday afternoon who could get me to the airport quickly,\u201d Pickering smiled, though the chaos didn\u2019t stop there for the young talent. \u201cMy suitcase is still somewhere, because my flight was delayed. But luckily I had two pairs of shoes, some underwear, and socks in my hand luggage, so I can at least start. It all worked out, thanks to the team\u2019s organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo<\/p>\n

\"finlay<\/p>\n

Finlay Pickering<\/p>\n

Pickering feels especially bad for Caruso<\/p>\n

When he arrived late Friday night at the Bahrain Victorious team hotel, he learned that he was replacing Caruso. \u201cI was in such a rush that I don\u2019t even know the full story. I just know that Damiano has an injury to his hand, but I\u2019m not exactly sure what happened. I mostly just feel for him, because he was in the form of his life and sacrificed a lot to get here. Damiano is such an important rider for the team.\u201d (Caruso broke his hand after slipping in the hotel, ed.)<\/p>\n

So now we\u2019ll see Pickering riding alongside team leaders Antonio Tiberi and Santiago Buitrago for three weeks. \u201cI actually feel ready, at the end of the day, a bike race is still a bike race. There\u2019s a lot of experience in the team, so I\u2019m assuming I\u2019ll get a few tips\u2026 and maybe some extra underwear from them. I\u2019m going to do my best to support Antonio and Santiago, because I really believe they can do big things in this Vuelta.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On paper, it sounds simple: a rider drops out of your Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a lineup, so you call…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-88583","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}