Tao Geoghegan Hart has endured a testing two years since winning the 2020 Giro d'Italia but after a series of illnesses, setbacks, coach changes and personal reflection, the Ineos Grenadiers rider seems back to his best, his career trajectory again pointing upwards.
The 28-year-old Londoner raced stage 1 of the Tour of the Alps with team leadership on his shoulders but calmly finished off the superb work of his teammates, including Geraint Thomas, to catch Hugh Carthy in the final five hundred metres and then win in the hillside Austrian village of Alpbach.
Geoghegan Hart won a stage of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana in early February and was third overall at Tirreno-Adriatico. Before that, his previous victory was the 2020 Giro d'Italia. He argues he has never been away; he has just been busy overcoming problem after problem, without any securing any results, but also without giving up.
Working with new Ineos Grenadiers coach Dajo Sanders, who joined from Team DSM in the winter, seems to be the key to Geoghegan Hart getting back to his best.
"You're never really making a comeback, everything is different, every preparation is different," Geoghegan suggested, revealing the problems he has faced in the last two years and the solution.
"Last year I was off the bike for a week four times between my first race of Valencia and the start of May, each time starting from zero and really chasing and pushing and pushing really hard. In cycling, you have to get back on the horse as quickly as possible but it's not always the best for you."
"I've had six coaches in the last seven or eight years. There was something that I always felt that I missed, like in a recipe. I saw all the riders doing well but I always felt like I hadn't really found a recipe, to have confidence in a certain methodology. But In the last six or seven months, I learned a lot about the best training for me.
Dajo Sanders seems to have helped Geogeghan Hart understand that less can mean more.
"I was really nervous to change again this year, to be honest. But it's been great. There's a cake that's been baked in the last few months. I'm happy with how everything's gone. I hope that will continue to show for the next five or so months that we have left," he said.
"It's so easy to do too much training and always to do more. But having a clear plan and really good communication with Dajo and working super closely together has worked. It's nothing crazy, in a lot of ways I would say I'm training less and not harder than last year but it's working."
More than a preparation race for the Giro d'Italia
The Tour of the Alps is a vital race for Ineos Grenadiers and the Giro d'Italia. They have seven of their eight riders for the Corsa Rosa here and have often impressed on the roads of Austria and Italy before starting the first Grand Tour of the season.
Geoghegan Hart won two stages in 2019 and finished second overall behind teammate Pavel Sivakov. He preferred not to think too far ahead to the Giro d'Italia. The Tour of the Alps is a race apart and an important goal.
"It's a very beautiful race," Geoghegan Hart said.
"Every race is very important. Any time we put a number you have to respect the race and not use it as preparation, certainly not in this modern cycling of the last three to four years.
So, for me, it's part of doing a good five stages here. And then we looked at other goals, but I don't turn up to races to prepare for something else."
He also wanted to win for personal and family reasons.
"Today was really important because it was my father's birthday yesterday, and I really wanted to win for him," he said.
"We don't have to spend much time together these years so it was really special for me to win for him. Of course, when you sit there in fifth wheel all day and watch those guys pushing like they did, you also want to win for them."
In support of British cycling and cycling for all
Geoghegan Hart's thoughtful answers to questions in the post-stage press conference tested the skills of the translator but he is always keen to express himself fully when asked about subjects close to his heart, including the problems currently afflicting racing in Britain and cycling beyond being just a sport.
He took to Twitter a few weeks ago when the latest British Continental team folded and left a close friend without a team. He spoke out because he cares about cycling in Britain and the wider sense of cycling in society.
"It's been a very turbulent few years in the world and it continues to be. But when something is really close to home, often you stop a little bit more than you would in another scenario," he explained.
"It's the fact that one small stone falling downhill or one snowflake rolling down the slope, eventually it adds up to a really big change. Compared to when I first started cycling in about 2010, now domestically, we have a big problem. We have this team (Ineos Grenadiers), which is incredible but below this team, there is not a professional British team, men's or women's.
"I think the domestic scene in the UK is really struggling. It's distressing to see a sport that I care so much about, that I think can change so many people's lives, and is quite unique.
"Cycling with a big C, this sport of cycling can really impact people to get on bikes in more countries and do cycling with a small c, which is what we all need for the future of this planet.
"We need everyone walking, on bikes being healthy, you know, using vehicles less and being outside in the beautiful countryside. And so I really believe in the power of cycling. I think there's been for many years a disconnect between the sport of cycling and the act of using a bicycle as transport. But I know which one came first in my life. And I won't forget that."
