The GoFundMe page, opened over the weekend by Tarling’s agent Jamie Barlow of 258 Protégé Sports Management, passed £41,000 by 17 August and has since climbed past £65,000, with the family lifting the target to £80,000 as the money kept coming in.
Barlow described the teenager as “an exceptionally talented cyclist with a bright future ahead of him, as well as a beloved son, brother, grandson, loyal friend and teammate.”
The money will feed a legacy project aimed at helping young Welsh riders take up the sport, in Tarling’s name.
A family in mourning
Tarling’s parents Michael and Dawn broke their silence on Instagram earlier this week.
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“This has been the hardest couple of days of our lives and it’s taken us a bit of time to be able to post this,” they wrote.
“Whilst our broken hearts will never be fixed, he was not only our son and brother but our best mate.”
They closed with a request to the cycling community: “If you’re heading out on your bike in the next few days give him a thought as you clip in.”
Finlay is the younger brother of Netcompany-Ineos rider Josh Tarling, and the outpouring since his death has cut across teams, nationalities and racing calendars.
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A crash on the Melgaço-Fafe stage
Tarling was riding for the British-registered NSN Development Team on Friday 14 August when he was hit head-on by a light goods vehicle during Stage 8 of the Volta a Portugal, a 166.8km leg from Melgaço to Fafe in the north of the country.
The vehicle, not part of the race convoy, had entered the closed route. Portugal’s Guarda Nacional Republicana opened an investigation. CNN Portugal broadcast footage of a smashed windscreen and a mangled bike frame at the scene.
Race organisers neutralised the stage as news of the fatal injuries came through, and the day’s podium ceremony was scrapped. NSN withdrew from the race the same evening.
The riders’ union CPA issued a statement of anger:
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“We are speechless and filled with anger. It is not right that a young athlete’s life should end this way, and we are furious that even today it is still not possible to prevent such serious accidents.”
Tributes from teams and rivals
NSN Development Team called Tarling a much-loved teammate who was, above all, “a son, a brother, and a friend to so many.”
British Cycling paid its own tribute, describing him as “a hugely talented rider with a bright future ahead, a loyal team-mate, and a brilliant young man.”
The gestures have kept coming through the following week’s racing. UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s Rui Oliveira dedicated his Volta a Portugal Stage 10 victory to the Tarling family after the race resumed with the peloton riding in Finlay’s memory. At the Czech Tour, Netcompany-Ineos’s AJ August, Josh Tarling’s teammate, pointed to the sky as he crossed the line to win Stage 3, wearing a black armband. Before the start in Pardubice, the peloton observed a minute’s silence, with the NSN team taking the front row.
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Barlow’s fund keeps ticking upward. As the family put it on the fundraising page, they hope it can bring “some small measure of comfort and peace to Dawn, Michael and Josh, as well as to his extended family and loved ones.”
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