Nathan Haas optimistic to mark a Grand Tour appearance in 2012
After having a slow start to his World Tour campaign, Nathan Haas believes that he is all set to take on the new season with the UCI Inaugural event, Santos Tour Down Under.
Marking his professional debut with the domestic side, Team Genesys Wealth Advisers, the Under 23 Australian National Road Race Champion received a sudden boost, after being picked up by the American World Tour outfit, Team Garmin-Barracuda for 2012 season.
The cyclist could not really secure enough wins during his debut World Tour season and his only admirable performance came during the Tour of Britain 2012.
He rode brilliantly during the eight-day race and occupied the second overall position after the final general classifications.
British cyclist Jonathan Tiernan-Locke achieved the first position with Damiano Caruso, Leigh Howard and Christopher Jones claiming the third, fourth and the fifth positions respectively.
First year at the top level of the sport is definitely not easy especially when you are not used to of racing the longer distance events and initially he found it pretty hard to manage the “training-to-fatigue ratio," he briefed.
"I'm doing these 200km races which I feel I've adapted to in the race but it's actually the recovery time in between them which I'm trying to get right, It's learning to push through fatigue or not," he told Cyclingnews.
"You can back up day to day but it's the ability to back-up, even with training, after 240km races which are at a much higher intensity than I've ever been used to. It's been all about how much recovery my body needs".
"The team wants me to build that and I'm really relishing the opportunity to do a grand tour,” he concluded.
The 23-year-old completed 80 days of racing in the 2012 season and has noted that his training for the 2013 season is with all new level of “depth in his legs”.
Making a Grand Tour debut appearance this year, seems a bit uncertain but the cyclist is definitely a strong candidate for the Jayco Herald Sun Tour, the Australian National Championships and the Santos Tour Down Under.
It will be interesting to see if Haas manages to find the right momentum earlier on the 2012 season and capitalises on his form to help Team Garmin in the season ahead.
Tags: