Respects were paid to Finlay Tarling at cycling races across Europe on Saturday, the day after the 19-year-old tragically died at the Volta a Portugal.
The Volta continued for its penultimate stage on Saturday, but without Tarling's teammates, as the NSN Development Team withdrew from the race.
The rest of the peloton gathered at the start in Paredes, where a memorial was set up for the late British rider in the spot where the NSN team bus would have been.
Flowers were laid on the ground and, one by one, representatives from each team in the race walked up to lay down one of their jerseys, the rest of the riders applauding as they did so. Objects such as water bottles and race signage were added to the memorial.
There was a special touch as the leader's yellow jersey was changed to black, with Alexis Guérin of the Anicolor team defending his race lead in black. The rest of the riders wore black armbands.
Soon after, on the start line, the peloton observed a minute's silence, with most of the riders removing their helmets. A round of applause followed the silence, and then the stage got underway. There was no racing initially, with a subdued start once kilometre-zero was reached, but the accelerations did eventually come and the racing resumed in earnest.
Guérin went on to win the stage and pointed to the sky as he crossed the line.
"I didn’t have super legs today but each time I looked down at my jersey, I saw the black, and I said to myself, 'today I have to win for this young guy'. I used that as strength, and then tried to pay homage at the end," the Frenchman said after his stage victory.
Elsewhere, similar tributes were paid at the Arctic Race of Norway and the Czech Tour. The NSN WorldTour team was present at both races, and both squads featured riders taken up temporarily from the NSN Development Team, who would have been close teammates with Tarling.
At the Czech Tour, a minute's silence was observed, with the NSN riders lined up across the start line ahead of the rest of the bunch. Established WorldTour names in Riley Sheehan, Jan Hirt, and Marco Frigo, were joined by two of Tarling's Development Team colleagues, Alex Beldon and Roei Edinger.
Stage winner AJ August, who is a teammate of Finlay Tarling's brother, Josh, at Netcompany-Ineos, pointed to his black armband and then up at the sky has he crossed the line.
Over at the Arctic Race of Norway, there was a minute's applause, instead of a minute's silence, with the NSN riders similarly lined up ahead of the peloton. The squad there featured Ethan Vernon, Alessandro Pinarello, Dion Smith and Rotem Tene, plus the Development riders Oscar Amey and Kiaan Watts.
"With the full support of Fin's parents, the WorldTour team will race on at Czech Tour and the Arctic Race of Norway," read a statement from the NSN team at the start of the day.
"We will continue to hold Fin in our hearts as we race in his honor, doing what he loved most."
