Tao Geoghegan Hart has progressed a long way, including vital degrees of knee flexion, since breaking his hip at the 2023 Giro d’Italia.
Fast-forward six months and he is now gearing up for the 2024 season and a “new chapter” of his career after signing with Lidl-Trek. He had to work tirelessly to first just bend his leg, but is now focused on returning to his best and challenging at the 2024 Tour de France.
The 28-year-old British rider was announced as one of Lidl-Trek’s leaders for next year’s Tour de France alongside fellow GC rider Mattias Skjelmose and Mads Pedersen, who will target stage victories.
Geoghegan Hart has been intensifying his training in the past few months and is now in Spain for the Lidl-Trek training camp, relishing the opportunity to build up his level after a challenging but mentally refreshing period of rehabilitation away from cycling.
The Netherlands was a temporary home for Geoghegan Hart as he worked with specialists at Fysiomed Amsterdam in the summer to regain balance and strength in his left leg, but he’s now returned to the life of a cycling pro at his new team.
With that came the “sad” reality of changing teams in the sport mid-injury, allowing little time to acknowledge and celebrate the myriad of relationships built up over seven years of service at Ineos Grenadiers/Team Sky that saw him join the WorldTour and take his first victories and win the Giro d’Italia in 2020.
“This [move] was more strange, because I felt really away from cycling, so I didn’t really feel like I was changing to be honest,” said Geoghegan Hart to Cyclingnews and other reporters at the Lidl-Trek training camp in Calpe.
“I was also sad because I didn’t have a chance to say goodbye to a lot of people and thank you. It was 2014 the first time I did training camp with a lot of that staff and riders. It’s a long time, my whole adult life.”
Geoghegan Hart took to social media just a few hours later to do exactly that. To thank those who had overseen his journey into the professional ranks and take a moment to pause and reflect on the time at the team he called home for many years.
“There are no perfect goodbyes in cycling,” said Geoghegan Hart on Twitter and Instagram.
“Often there are no goodbyes at all. Most of the Ineos Grenadiers riders and staff I haven’t seen since March or April. In professional cycling we aren’t afforded a moment to say thank you or to look back on what we’ve done.
“That’s just the sport, and…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…