Jack Haig is one of only a handful of Australian riders to have stood on a Grand Tour podium. An almost accidental pro who fell into a career on the road whilst surfing and mountain biking back in his home in Australia as a teenager, he has been a constant presence in the biggest stage races in the world since his breakthrough ride, winning the Queen stage of the 2017 Tour of Poland as a second-year pro.

While his consistency as a stage racer is pretty standout (he’s been fifth at the Dauphiné three times, which is eye-opening when you know how bloody hard that thing is!) his story off the bike is just as - if not more, fascinating.

There can be a lot of pressure to conform in professional road cycling but there is something a little bit unique in a lot of pros, and the best ones are the ones who accept that part of their character and embrace it to be a better rider. With Jack, it’s been clear since the very early days (when we were teammates at Orica) that he was a rider who did things his own way and didn’t feel the need to fit into what was expected.

I love getting behind the scenes with characters like Haigy here on the pod. These are the guys, the opinions, and the stories that make the peloton such a fascinating place, and prove that you can do things your own way off the bike whilst being hugely successful on it.

As well as the big results, Jack has dealt with some pretty serious setbacks too, crashing out of the Tour in 2021 when in the best form of his life. We talk about how he dealt with this and other setbacks, as well as what keeps him coming back to be in the mix in those super hard week-long stage races that he loves (watch out Dauphiné - he’s currently lurking just outside the top ten of this years edition…)

It’ll hopefully be a big European summer for Jack so chuck the pod on and get to know one of the peloton’s true characters!

This episode is supported by our friends at HVNM.

The team at HVMN have an offer for all Life in the Peloton listeners with a whopping 30% offer for orders when you visit hvmn.com/lifeinthepeloton.

Head across to RESTRAP.com to check out all their amazing products, and use the code Pelo10 for a cheeky discount.

RESTRAP have now opened an Australian-specific store! For Aussie listeners AU.RESTRAP.COM.

Cheers,

Mitch

After a short pause, this week we’re back with another episode of The Race Communiqué!

We’ve had an absolutely bumper month of racing with the first Grand Tour of the year, the Giro d’Italia, wrapping up in Rome just a few days ago.

Racing is what this pod is all about and we are going to be driving right into the heart of all the recent action with current pro Luke Durbridge and sports director Tom Southam helping me pick apart a brilliant few weeks of cycling.

Before we get into the action on the road though, the big news is the results of our first attempts at our sponsor - The Escape Collective’s, brilliant fantasy league game are in! We all had a bit of fun with this one here at the pod, and I’ll let you have a listen to see how we went. I would say though, that given the experience and knowledge on this podcast panel, you may be surprised by some of the performances in the league!

As well as covering the big stories at the Giro we each nominate our revelations of the race. As ever, a lot of the best bits of the race were the stories behind the headlines, and there were some cracking sub-plots going on with revelations like Georg Steinhauser and Guilio Pellizzari turning a few heads.

There has been plenty going on in the peloton outside the Giro as well. Luke gives us some insight into how the UCI points ranking is already a huge topic for riders and teams at the mid-point of the three-year cycle. Tom looks at the complications of even just getting into the breakaway these days before the super teams hoover up all the wins on the road, and why that will be a big influence on the way the racing goes in the rest of the season.

It’s great to get back to chatting about what is happening in the pro peloton and really get behind the scenes with a lot of the stuff that is new to me these days. I hope you guys enjoy this one.

Cheers,

Mitch

This is a short excerpt from the longer episode. To listen to the whole thing and future episodes become a member of The Pelo.

In this month’s Chronicles Sveino and I have gone for probably our deepest dive yet - back to where we first got to know each other, taking a look at the formation of Australia’s first ever World Tour cycling team, GreenEDGE.

Most of you will know the team - which is now known as Jayco Alula, already, and many of you may remember those first few years and big wins. These days it’s easy to take it for granted but when this team arrived in Europe it was fresh and very new, and it delivered right from the start - taking out thirty races, including Milan San Remo with Simon Gerrans in its first year of existence!

As well as performing on the road the team had an amazing presence with guys like Dan Jones working to create the image of a real Australian team, and having a lot of fun along the way with a few unconventional ideas - like that infamous ‘Call Me Maybe’ video from 2012.

For myself as an Australian being part of a team like GreenEdge was huge. It was as close as you could come outside of the World Championships to racing for Australia. The team represented a country and a culture, and for the international riders on the team like Sveino it was a chance to be brought in to the Aussie way and to be a part of a really special team.

As riders we had both experienced the team from the inside, and it played a huge role in our careers, so for this episode we wanted to really get behind the scenes and understand how the team was built, what was the idea behind it, and how and why it worked the way it did. We wanted to cover all angles and hear about the parts that even we didn’t see or understand at the time.

We were lucky to get hold of the son of the founder and the man who helped make it all work, Andrew Ryan, as well as head DS Matt White, star riders Simon Gerrans and Daryl Impey and our good mate Luke Durbridge who is now in his thirteenth pro season with the team. On top of all of that we spoke to the man behind bringing a lot of that fun hardworking (occasionally pie-eating) Australian culture videographer Dan Jones.

Of course, Sveino and I also chip in with our own stories and experiences riding for and being a part of the team.

This is a really special episode for myself and for Sveino. GreenEDGE formed a huge part of our racing career and there are so many memories there that this was a real gift to be able to record. We both really hope that it comes through to you guys and you take the time to give it a listen, it’s a big one but it’s a good one!

Cheers!

Mitch