Giant-Alpecin's Chad Haga is making the most of his return to competition after being injured in the preseason training crash that also involved five of his teammates, including John Degenkolb and Warren Barguil. Haga finished 12th in Friday's Giro d'Italia opening time trial that his teammate, Tom Dumoulin, won in front of the Dutch team's home fans in Apeldoorn. Over the following two stages the 27-year-old from Texas climbed into the race's top 10 at ninth overall.
The result seems improbable, given that Haga arguably took the brunt of the damage caused when a driver crossed the centre line and hit the Giant-Alpecin riders head on while they were training in Spain. Haga was airlifted from the scene with deep gashes to his face, neck and chest that required surgery, but a fracture to his orbital bone near his right eye did not require surgery.
Haga returned to competition at the Criterium International at the end of March, finishing 22nd overall. Since then he's raced the Ardennes Classics and the Tour de Romandie, but it was his result in the Giro's first stage that confirmed his return to form.
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Haga agreed to spend some of his valuable recovery time on the Giro's first rest day - as the peloton transfers from Holland to Cantanzaro, Italy, for the start of stage 4 - answering questions that Cyclingnews readers submitted via Twitter.
Mirjam - @TrampsLikeMe
Happy to see you back in the peloton. Have all your injuries healed 100%?
Haga: I'm not 100 percent recovered yet. Everything that I need to race a bike well is healed. The whiplash created some weird muscle compensations in my shoulder that are now really well trained in, and it's going to be a problem long term if I don't fix them. I have to do exercises daily to try and retrain my shoulder muscles and build strength back up there. But as far as bike racing everything is good.
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