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It has been a long time since Australian general classification rider Jack Haig turned a pedal in competition. Last seen sitting forlornly on the side of the road at the Tour de France nursing multiple fractures in his wrist in July 2022, it wasn’t until February of 2023 that he lined up again on the startline of a race at Vuelta Andalucia (also known as Ruta del Sol).
Haig was caught up in the middle of a maelstrom after a hay bale was knocked onto the road by a race organisation motorbike in front of the main chasing group on the cobbled Stage 5 of the Tour de France, with Haig ensconced alongside the other general classification riders.
“I thought I was a bit out of the woods for that stage,” said Haig in an interview with SBS Sport. “We’d done all the major sectors and I think there were only one or two left that weren’t too difficult.
“I remember being a bit more calm in the peloton as it was already a pretty small group. There was maybe a bit more tension, maybe there was another sector coming up as I remember Primož (Roglič) and the Jumbo guys wanting to move up on the outside of the road and I let them through.
“We went through the roundabout, I didn’t see the hay bale or anything, but someone has a photo of Primoz crashing and going over the handlebars and basically it’s me in the wrong place at the wrong time. He’d unclipped one of his feet and it ended up under my arm.
“It pushed my hand off the handlebars and meant that I landed at 65 kilometres an hour directly onto my wrist. That caused it to fracture and break into a million pieces.
“I’ve gone through it and seen that photo and thought ‘if I was five centimetres to the right and his foot hit my elbow instead of my arm, maybe I crash, but not onto my wrist’.
“It was just wrong place, wrong time and it was super frustrating. The team did a super good job to keep me safe and I thought I also rode quite well. We’d got through the hard cobble sectors… and for something silly like that to ruin my season is just disappointing.”
The return from the crash was one of the slowest in Haig’s career, a far cry from his recovery from a broken collarbone in the previous Tour de France, when he was able to back up at the Vuelta a Espana and finish on the overall podium. This time, there was no miraculous Vuelta return, or any racing for the rest of the season.
“The main problem wasn’t the wrist fracture. If it was just the bones, I probably would have been able to line up for the Vuelta,” said Haig. “I broke three bones, the end of the radius, the scaphoid, and there’s a small bone next to the scaphoid called the lunate. There’s a ligament that runs through all of those and basically I managed to tear the ligament 95 per cent in half so there was just a tiny bit left holding on.
“Ligaments and tendons take a lot longer to heal than bones I’ve learnt, so that was the major problem. I ended up spending almost nine weeks without riding outside. I think it was the longest I haven’t ridden my bike outside since I was a teenager.”
Haig lives the life of an elite general classification rider, along with the choices and prioritisations that go with perfecting training, nutrition, and every aspect of preparation ahead of major targets for the season. Having a young child gives Haig a new perspective and magnifies the impacts of those decisions.
“To have it happen two years in a row… it’s not just the crash at the Tour, it’s the whole build-up process to it,” said Haig. “The sacrifices I make and my family makes and the effort the team puts in it preparing me and the team around it. To go to the Tour and having it fail twice… twice through bad luck more than anything else. Both times for it to happen out of my control was pretty hard to take.
Haig’s return to racing came in Andalucia where he was 11th overall on the general classification, the promising news being that it was part of a strong Bahrain Victorious overall performance with three teammates positioned ahead of Haig, including Mikel Landa and Santiago Buitrago on the final podium.
“It took me a little bit longer than I thought to get back into race rhythm straight away, but we had Mikel Landa and Santiago Buitrago do a really good result,” said Haig. “Before the end, I started to feel really good and comfortable within the peloton.
“Coming into Paris-Nice, I’m looking forward to it but there’s always the question with Paris-Nice about crosswinds and bad weather. All that stuff that’s fun to watch but not so fun to do once you’re riding. It’s my first big test, and a race that I’ve done relatively well in.”
Haig’s history at Paris-Nice is very good, he was fourth on debut in 2019, seventh in 2021 and sixth in 2022. There are similar personal ambitions for Haig this year, with the Southport-born rider one of the few Giro d’Italia bound general classification riders heading to the race with most more focused on the Tour de France.
“Hopefully another top 10 or even a top 5,” said Haig of his hopes for a final overall position, “and also some good feelings heading into Volta Catalunya, and then to the Giro.”
Haig and the rest of the field will have to contend with the class climbers of the modern era, with the winners of the past three Tours de France, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) both in scintillating early season form.
“Tadej is very impressive,” said Haig. “I was impressed with his team at Andalucia (Ruta del Sol) as well, if he’s got that team again for Paris-Nice then they’ll be incredibly strong.
“Jumbo-Visma did very well with Jonas in Gran Camino and the opening weekend (cobbled classics). Both those two riders and teams could put a bit of a stranglehold on the race, and we could potentially be racing for third place because those two seem to be on another level at the moment.
“But all it takes is one of them to have a bad day in the crosswinds or the TTT and the race is wide open.”
For Jack Haig’s full thoughts on the Paris-Nice stages and his teammates at the race, keep an eye out on SBS Sport socials over the next few days for the full interview.
