On Friday at 1 PM, less than 24 hours before the 2025 Vuelta a España was due to get underway, Finlay Pickering received the phone call that would indelibly change the Bahrain Victorious' racer's second half of the 2025 season - and perhaps even more.
Teammate Damiano Caruso fractured his hand which left the Italian veteran out of action for the Vuelta on Friday morning. Bahrain Victorious immediately opted to replace him with Pickering, 15 years Caruso's junior, who has never taken part in a Grand Tour before.
The 22-year-old last raced in the Vuelta a Burgos, finishing a reasonable, if not particularly remarkable, 23rd overall. And as Pickering later revealed, as first reserve for Bahrain, he did have some kind of rough training program just in case he received the call-up.
That was the decision. The million-dollar question was - would he get there in time?
As was confirmed by Pickering's presence on Saturday morning at the mixed zone at the start of stage 1 in Turin, the answer was - yes, he would.
However, getting that phone call to get himself to the Vuelta at almost the last moment possible demanded a lightning-fast turnaround in order to make it to Turin on time, not to mention a few strokes of fortune in his favour.
"It was actually really lucky, because I had a problem with a pair of training wheels and they were in a bike shop, so I was a bit late going out training," Pickering recalled to reporters.
"I was on the way to pick them up when I got a call from management saying how quickly can I be in an airport?"
"Well, if I drive fast, I guess the answer's - pretty quick."
He didn't actually drive, he said, but instead opted to take a taxi 200 kilometres to the Toulouse airport from Andorra for a flight to Italy. So far so good, but then Pickering faced a few more problems.
"The first flight was delayed, so I didn't get my suitcase. But at least I managed to pack two pairs of shoes [in hand luggage] so I can start today," he explained.
Asked if he was missing anything important from his hold luggage suitcase, Pickering said, "it's not like it was anything important.
"I've got a set of boxers, a set of socks, and the team are really good at looking after me, so - no stress."
Prior to heading off to the start, Pickering also had words of support for Caruso, whom he said had been training hard, only to suffer a last-minute disaster. "I wish him all the best, I really feel for him, he's made a lot of sacrifices and he was in the shape of his life, he'd just won a stage in Burgos. He's a really integral part of the squad."
Now, however, the young Briton has been flung into the Grand Tour at the last possible moment, but he insisted that he was taking things as calmly as possible. "I'm pretty ready. I'm a bike rider and this is a bike race, after all - even if it's a pretty big one."
Having so few reference points given his first Grand Tour, he agreed, is actually something of an advantage as it means he has no option but to take things in his first Vuelta day-by-day.
"I mean, there's [teammate] Jack [Haig] here, we've got a good DS with Peli [Franco Pellizotti] so the team's pretty experienced and they can maybe give me some tips.
"My goal is just to support Antonio [Tiberi] and Santiago [Buitrago] as much as possible, because I believe they can do really great things in this Vuelta."
Pickering came through the first stage unscathed and in 153rd place, but there is still a very long way to go to Madrid. One recognisable feature of the Vuelta, though, will come on Thursday, when the race tackles its first mountain top finish in Pal at Andorra, near his current home - and he's glad of that.
"Yeah, I mean, where we turn left at the roundabout on that climb, if you go straight on you're pretty much on my street, so that's pretty much as local as you can get in a bike race," he said.
In an unexpected voyage in the dark like the 2025 Vuelta a España for Pickering, whatever familiar reference points he can get, he's sure to be welcoming them. But just making it to the Vuelta start after such a late call-up is already something of an achievement in itself.
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