Q&A Tao Geoghegan-Hart
The former Giro winner tells Cyclist about his horror crash at last year’s race, his slow recovery and life after Ineos Grenadiers
Words Andy McGrath Photography Sean Hardy
Cyclist: What do you remember from your race-ending crash in the Giro d’Italia last year?
Tao Geoghegan-Hart: Directly from the moment that Giro crash happened, I understood everything. There were five seconds of ambiguity where I had hope and thought, ‘You need to jump up and go, this is the Giro, you’re flying.’ And then I remembered what I felt when I touched the ground. It was a situation I never imagined I’d be in. I had always walked away from some decent hits.
Of course, it was horrible to be stuck in hospital for two weeks. And it’s really hard to be in a wheelchair, not able to walk. But I always had short-term goals I could chip away at. The rehab, the surgery, everything went smoothly.
Cyc: After suffering a complex femur fracture, you didn’t race for the rest of 2023 and focussed on recovery. How has this experience changed you?
TGH: It’s a new chapter of my career for many reasons. The crash is, of course, one thing, but I’ve also changed teams [from Ineos Grenadiers] after seven years. Lidl-Trek is only the second WorldTour team of my career. There are new adventures and experiences going on.
It was interesting to be quite outside of cycling for half a year. For a long time I didn’t see anyone to do with the sport. Well, I saw Dylan [van Baarle] while I was recovering in Amsterdam; we had a coffee one afternoon. I was working with people that didn’t follow the Tour de France. I was really outside of cycling and that was just a good period for me – not that I needed it or searched for it, but I made the most of it. Doing that was the best way to come back really fresh now. I’m looking forward to this next chapter.
Cyc: What are your hopes and expectations for 2024?
TGH: It’s quite a clean slate. Similar to any time of my career, it’s about being the best I can be. In the Giro I was so happy because I felt I hadn’t really started the race yet – and we were halfway through. I was just waiting to show what I wanted to show. It was all trending in the right direction, and that’s the best feeling in the world when you’ve worked five months with a nice group of guys around you, spending four weeks at a time together at altitude, sacrificing things, putting the hours in.
With this team, there a
