Just over four weeks on from needing to be airlifted from the scene of his head-on crash with an automobile while training with Giant-Alpecin teammates in Spain, Chad Haga is training on a limited basis and thinking about which Grand Tour he'll get to ride this season.
The 27-year-old from Texas has been racing with the Dutch WorldTour team since 2014, when he finished his first Grand Tour at the Vuelta a España. He followed that up last year at the Giro d'Italia, where he scored a top 10 finish on the stage 18 finish into Verbania that was won by Philippe Gilbert.
Despite having lost much of the fitness he built over the winter, and facing limited training because of lost strength in his neck muscles, Haga is gunning for a previously-planned start at the Giro d'Italia. But at this point, he says, any Grand Tour will do.
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"I want a Grand Tour this year," Haga said from his adopted home in Girona. "So I'll take what I can get. Even the Giro is pretty far away, so I can have hopes. But considering where my fitness is now, it's daunting."
A return to the Tour of California, assuming his team is invited this year, is also among the possibilities. Haga finished 10th there in 2013 while riding for the US Continental team Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies.
"Yeah, absolutely," he said when asked about a return to California. "There are still a lot of options open. There are so many guys injured, we're just trying to fill out rosters."
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