{"id":236227,"date":"2025-07-04T01:58:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T01:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/236227\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T01:58:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T01:58:12","slug":"i-found-out-yesterday-morning-sam-watson-on-late-call-up-for-tour-de-france-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/236227\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I found out yesterday morning’ – Sam Watson on late call-up for Tour de France debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

A little over 24 hours ago, Sam Watson received a call that would flip his summer plans on their head. He was at home, in Leeds, enjoying a few days off the bike after winning a British national title<\/a>. Suddenly, his phone rang. How did he fancy going to the Tour de France<\/a>?<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, it\u2019s a bit like, \u2018Bloody hell, pinch me\u2019 \u2013 a bit like I was dreaming. Then I ended the call and I was a little bit stressed I had to pack my suitcase and get to the airport,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was a bit of a late call-up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Late was an understatement. At no point this year had the Tour de France been discussed as part of the 23-year-old’s plans. He wasn\u2019t even on Ineos Grenadiers\u2019 long list until last week, before the British National Championships, where he went on to place second in the time trial and first in the road race, soloing to the line with a final-lap raid.<\/p>\n

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So why, then, has the British champion been called up so late to the Tour? \u201cVarious reasons,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m in good shape. I\u2019ll be honest, Swifty [Ben Swift] was supposed to be here, and I don\u2019t think he\u2019s very well, so it\u2019s a bit of a shame for him.” For Watson, though, “it’s a bit of a dream”.<\/p>\n

\"Sam<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Two days ahead of the Grand D\u00e9part in Lille, he’s dressed in the spoils of his latest victory: a fresh, white jersey, belted with the British bands. Wearing it at the Tour is a \u201cbucket-list thing to do\u201d, he says, but he gives no sense of being overwhelmed by the occasion. Instead, Watson holds an unusual calmness for a rider about to make their Tour debut \u2013 mostly because he\u2019s had little time to build up the nerves.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably some guys have spent almost all year worrying \u2013 I don\u2019t know if they\u2019re stressed about it or not, but it\u2019s always in the back of their minds. Whereas I\u2019m completely stress free,\u201d he says with a smile.<\/p>\n

It helps that Watson\u2019s no stranger to late call-ups. This April, he was dropped into the Tour de Romandie at 24 hours’ notice \u2013 and ended up winning the prologue time trial<\/a>, earning his first WorldTour victory and the leader\u2019s jersey. \u201cYesterday I was out training in Andorra,\u201d he said at the time. \u201cAnd here I am with a victory. It\u2019s pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A repeat of that success is unlikely on Saturday\u2019s opening stage in Lille, a day tailored to the pure sprinters. Still, Watson is confident there will be opportunities for him on his debut.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I have ambitions and ideas. In this first week, there are some quite good stages for all of us, so I just want to go out there and try and win,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019ll be a little bit of freedom, not every day, but there\u2019ll be some freedom to fight and go for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than a decade after he watched at a home Grand D\u00e9part in Yorkshire, Watson is now part of the same carnival. He casts his mind back to his 12-year-old self.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember being stood at the side of the road and pointing out the likes of G [Geraint Thomas<\/a>] and [Mark] Cavendish,\u201d he says. \u201cNow I\u2019m in a team with G… I never really though that I\u2019d be team-mates with him, racing the Tour de France alongside him. It\u2019s pretty surreal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A little over 24 hours ago, Sam Watson received a call that would flip his summer plans on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-236227","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"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114792490849767056","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}