When Giant-Alpecin’s Chad Haga rolls down the start ramp in the Giro d’Italia opening time trial on Friday afternoon, the American won’t just be getting underway in one of cycling’s toughest races. For Haga, following his terrible crash this January, the 2016 Giro represents “one step closer to getting back to real normal as a rider.”
Very early this spring, Haga was one of the group of Giant-Alpecin riders out on a pre-season training ride that was struck by a car in southern Spain when she drove along the wrong side of the road - and into them. Five riders ended up in hospital, and in the unlikely case Haga needs a reminder of that crash, the scar running 97 stitches from his lower face down to his sternum constitutes the bleakest of reminders.
Physically, the recovery process was a long one. It took nearly three weeks before Haga could ride outside and the long-term effects of whiplash took a considerable toll on the Texan’s riding. He finally returned to racing in the Criterium International, placing a creditable 22nd overall in his maiden 2016 event, but the Giro d’Italia was, and is, his big target for the first half of the season. Furthermore, he had to overcome the mental challenges such a traumatic crash almost inevitably creates.
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“It gets better at every stage but it seemed like at every race I was working on a different issue,” Haga tells Cyclingnews. “Whether it was holding a position in the bunch, descending in the bunch, then descending in the rain in the bunch, then descending in the snow in the bunch.… There are many facets to racing and each one needed working out.”
But having worked through each step mentally, this Friday Haga will be at the point where he is now back at the highest level of WorldTour stage racing. As he puts it “I’m happy to be racing, and even more so at the Giro d’Italia. I’m one step closer to getting back to real normal as a racer.
“This race was my one big goal at the start of the year, and so after the crash it became my big focus to get back to the point where I could race it again. I’m happy with my fitness at the moment and I’m still a little bit intimidated at the thought of three weeks of what I went through at [the Tour of ] Romandie last week.
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