Haig’s pathway similar to Porte says former sports director

Second-year Orica-Scott rider — not counting his late-season stint as a stagiaire in 2015 — Jack Haig currently finds himself as the top ranked rider from Down Under after completing Stage 6 (of 21) of the 72nd edition of La Vuelta a España.

Haig currently sits 15th overall (+2:19) behind team leaders Esteban Chaves (COL) in second (+0:11), Adam Yates (GBR) in eighth (+0:50) and Simon Yates (GBR) in 10th (+1:26) after his own top 10 finish on Stage 6 won by Lotto Soudal’s Tomasz Marczynski.

The closest of the 11 other riders from Asia-Pacific on general classification is fellow Australian Lachlan Morton (Dimension Data), who is more than 24 minutes back in 66th position.

Perhaps surprising to some, but not Haig’s former sports director Andrew Christie-Johnston, who rostered the Bendigo (VIC) native for two years on the Avanti Racing Team — now known as IsoWhey Sports-SwissWellness.

“Jack came through our team pretty quickly,” Christie-Johnston told Eurosport. “He was one of the top mountain bikers in the country and that’s where we were introduced to him. His rise in the Australian ranks was pretty quick and the one thing I noticed about Jack from the start was not only his natural talent, but his dedication to the sport and willingness to put in the hard work necessary to excel at the highest level.

“Coming from a mountain bike background, it took him a few years to get the miles in the legs he needed,” he continued. “But now you can see the work he’s been putting in over the last five years is starting to come out and pay huge dividends.

“We haven’t even seen him scratch the surface yet on what he is capable of achieving in the sport of cycling.”

The 23-year-old climbing specialist recently picked up his first professional victory after claiming Stage 6 at the Tour of Pologne (Poland) earlier this month. It was his first WorldTour win and the 2014 Tour Down Under’s best young rider ultimately finished eighth on general classification after finishing third on GC at the Tour of Slovenia in June.

Haig is just one of over a dozen riders to find success underneath the ‘ACJ’ learning tree while racing for one of the many incarnations of the Australian-registered UCI Continental team.

Other notable alumni include two-time Paris-Nice winner Richie Porte (BMC Racing), Nathan Haas (Dimension Data), Will Clarke (Cannondale-Drapac), Patrick Bevin (Cannondale-Drapac) and Brenton Jones (JLT Condor), along with former WorldTour riders Nathan Earle (Team Sky) now of Team UKYO and Steele von Hoff (Garmin-Sharp) of One Pro Cycling, as well as an unexpectedly retired Campbell Flakemore (BMC Racing).

Of all his colleagues, Christie-Johnston sees the biggest similarity in style and possible trajectory with the 32-year-old Porte.

“He’s the closest to Porte,” he told Eurosport. “He handles a lot of load, no problem to get out there and do the miles, and has a natural ability to recover well.”

“I’d say he’s on the same sort of path as Richie,” he continued. “He has a long way to go to get to the very top, but I think everyone has seen his natural progression over the years, and I think the next few years will be exciting to watch.”

Christie-Johnston, whose team has dominated the Australian National Road Series for nearly a decade, firmly believes that given time, Haig could develop into serious GC contender on one-week stage races and beyond.

“Jack is a natural guy that is happy to work for his team-mates and ride a support role in Grand Tours, and he’d be happy to do for a while,” he explained. “But I can see him targeting races like Paris-Nice, Tour de Romandie and other seven- to 10-day stage races.

“Those races will really suit Jack and he will be given a bit more freedom,” Christie-Johnston continued. “One he has an opportunity to shine, we may see him in years to come get a crack at the Giro [d’Italia], the Vuelta or even the Tour de France — same sort of path as Richie.”

Haig for one is happy with how his career path is unfolding.

“I think my performances in Poland were a result of an accumulation of a lot of consistent hard work and maybe I started to figure out a few smaller things like being happy and more settled at home, and feeling more comfortable inside the team,” he said. “Everything just seemed to come together and click.

“It is only my second season as a professional with Orica-Scott and I am super happy and grateful to be in a team like this that has helped me to develop this quickly and given me the opportunity to take my first win.”

For full race results click here.