NATHAN HAAS

Nathan Haas came to road racing late, dominated the local scene and won a contract from a team hoping they’d found a rough diamond. Garmin-Barracuda picked up the Japan Cup-winning, former socio-legal studies student, in 2012. They had a 22-year-old who knew about crime and punishment but couldn’t take a bidon from the car without causing havoc in the caravan. His DS at the time, Allan Peiper, said that physically, he was the shape and style of the former double road world champion Paolo Bettini. But that success “depended on the size of the engine.”

Six years on, that initial assessment seems borne out. Haas is still best in attritional races that end in a reduced group sprint. His stage 2 victory at the Tour of Oman this year is a case in point: he beat the in-form Alexey Lutsenko and Greg Van Avermaet in a 15-man group after a hilly run in. Oman was a good indicator of his repertoire. He was 22 seconds behind Miguel Ángel López on the climb to Green Mountain and fifth in the sprint on stage 6, won by Alexander Kristoff.

So far, Haas has been a rare winner: that was just his seventh. But then he’s a case study in progression. His consistency is improving. In 2014 – his best season – he secured nine top fives. That dropped to four and five in ’15 and ’16, but was back to nine in 2017. This year, by late February, he had amassed eight. Haas is also finishing higher in bigger races. Last year he was fourth at Amstel Gold, the event he thinks most closely aligns with his talents. He moved to Katusha-Alpecin this year and has started strongly. Is this the season his talent is polished to a shine?