Jack Haig is working on his time trial as he aims for Tour de France overall after Vuelta podium
There will be 53km worth of time trialing at the 2022 French Grand Tour
Jack Haig has been working on his time trialing as he looks to build on a Vuelta a España podium performance in 2021, focusing his 2022 attentions on the overall standings at the Tour de France.
The French Grand Tour has 53km worth of time trial racing next year, with an opening ITT in the Danish capital city of Copenhagen kicking things off before a 40km ride on stage 20 between Lacapelle-Marival and Rocamadour.
The 28-year-old Australian had a superb Vuelta a España in 2021 where he finished third overall behind winner Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) and Spaniard Enric Mas (Movistar) with Haig's team-mate Gino Mäder finishing fifth after original leader, Mikel Landa, faded before abandoning.
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Haig's 2021 Tour wasn't quite so successful, with the climber crashing out of the race on stage three, alongside multiple other favourites such as Roglič, who abandoned later in the race, and Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) who went on to finish the race in support of Richard Carapaz.
In a press conference at Bahrain Victorious' training camp, Haig said: "The result in the Vuelta has given me a bit more confidence now to really go into the bigger stage races with confidence that I can do it and I can achieve a good performance over three weeks.
"Whereas going to the Tour de France this year before I had my crash, there was a bit of uncertainty there because it was the first time that I really had been given the opportunity by the team and also had the pressure on myself to build up to such a big race and try to perform at three weeks."
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Haig has been at the Bahrain Victorious training camp with the entire team for the 2022 season, including all the new signings.
The team decided that, if Haig wants to go for Grand Tours, he needs to work on his time trialing along with the rest of the roster.
"We have some really strong riders here," he continued. "So we are working super hard during this December training camp and in January on optimising the TT set up and hopefully we can turn the longer TT's - for example in next year's Tour de France at the end - into a bit more of an advantage rather than a disadvantage."
He went on to say how the atmosphere in the ranks back in January was odd with Rod Ellingworth and big name car brand McLaren both leaving the team, but Haig says that by Paris-Nice everything was feeling more organised and "streamlined".
Bahrain Victorious were just that on multiple occasions over 2021 with the team taking 30 wins over 2021 with Paris-Roubaix and the European Championships road race going to Sonny Colbrelli, not to mention five Grand Tour stage wins, including three at the Tour de France.
For the 2022 season, Haig has said that he likely starting his season at the UAE Tour before following a "similar path" to the season just gone, towards the Tour which would include Paris-Nice, Flèche Wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Tour de Romandie and Critérium du Dauphiné.
Tim Bonville-Ginn is a freelance writer who has worked with Cycling Weekly since 2020 and has also written for many of the biggest publications in cycling media including Cyclingnews, Rouleur, Cyclist and Velo.