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. Suddenly, his phone rang. How did he fancy going to the Tour de France?
“First of all, it’s a bit like, ‘Bloody hell, pinch me’ – 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,” he says. “It was a bit of a late call-up.”
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’t even on Ineos Grenadiers’ 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.
So why, then, has the British champion been called up so late to the Tour? “Various reasons,” he says. “I’m in good shape. I’ll be honest, Swifty [Ben Swift] was supposed to be here, and I don’t think he’s very well, so it’s a bit of a shame for him." For Watson, though, "it's a bit of a dream".
Two days ahead of the Grand Départ 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 “bucket-list thing to do”, 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 – mostly because he’s had little time to build up the nerves.
“Probably some guys have spent almost all year worrying – I don’t know if they’re stressed about it or not, but it’s always in the back of their minds. Whereas I’m completely stress free,” he says with a smile.
It helps that Watson’s no stranger to late call-ups. This April, he was dropped into the Tour de Romandie at 24 hours' notice – and ended up winning the prologue time trial, earning his first WorldTour victory and the leader’s jersey. “Yesterday I was out training in Andorra,” he said at the time. “And here I am with a victory. It’s pretty special.”
A repeat of that success is unlikely on Saturday’s opening stage in Lille, a day tailored to the pure sprinters. Still, Watson is confident there will be opportunities for him on his debut.
“Of 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,” he says. “There’ll be a little bit of freedom, not every day, but there’ll be some freedom to fight and go for it.”
More than a decade after he watched at a home Grand Départ in Yorkshire, Watson is now part of the same carnival. He casts his mind back to his 12-year-old self.
“I remember being stood at the side of the road and pointing out the likes of G [Geraint Thomas] and [Mark] Cavendish,” he says. “Now I’m in a team with G... I never really though that I’d be team-mates with him, racing the Tour de France alongside him. It’s pretty surreal.”
