Two years ago Tao Geoghegan Hart turned down an offer to turn pro with Team Sky, preferring instead to spend another 12 months at under-23 level before making the leap to the WorldTour. The 22-year-old Briton has been touted as a future star for what seems like an age now and, with a solid first season at Sky under now his belt, his has been a measured rather than a spectacular rise.
“Maybe you sacrifice a few of the high highs if you want to be consistent throughout the whole year, and maybe you don’t reach your top level. But, I think in the first couple of years, at the stage I’m at in my career now, it’s better to really show the team what I can do over the whole year and be consistent,” Geoghegan Hart told Cyclingnews in Colombia, where he’s kicking off his second season as a professional.
His neo-pro campaign saw him race 80 days, half of which were at WorldTour level. He helped Michal Kwiatkowski and Mikel Landa to victories at Strade Bianche and the Vuelta a Burgos, respectively, and was able to test the water for himself at the short stage races, finishing eighth at the Tour of California and Tour de Yorkshire, along with gaining his first taste of all three Ardennes Classics.
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“I was really happy with the season. I got to do some really nice races – the kind of races I can see myself doing for the next decade or more of my career, or however long I’m lucky enough to keep doing this job,” said Geoghegan Hart.
“That’s kind of the key thing, really, to start experiencing those big races, like the week-long stage races and the big one-days, and then, year on year, going deeper and deeper and hopefully progressing into a bigger and bigger role.”
Exploring his capabilities
Geoghegan Hart is keen to explore his capabilities as a general classification rider, and this year he will look to build on the foundations he built in 2017 with a sharpened focus on week-long stage races such as the Abu Dhabi Tour, Volta a Catalunya, and the Vuelta al País Vasco. He considers ‘robustness’ as his biggest asset and he’s also hoping for a first Grand Tour.
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