Almost five months after breaking his hip at the Giro d’Italia, Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) is nearing the end of the rehabilitation tunnel, with the British rider revealing on social media that he can now ride indoors.
Geoghegan Hart has spent nine weeks at a specialist sports rehabilitation centre in the Netherlands at Fysiomed Amsterdam during the summer to fast track his rehabilitation. He crashed during stage 11 of the Giro d'Italia and needed surgery on his complex hip fracture but soon began to focus on rehabilitation and a return to racing in 2024.
“It’s been a very busy few months of work. Almost everyday in the gym and on the physio table,” said Geoghegan Hart in an Instagram post. “And after all of that work, I’m super happy to be back in the saddle now and (a little surprisingly) feeling really good already.
“Grateful to have had time with plenty of special people in the last months amongst the daily grind of this rehab. Thanks to everyone in my circle for the support.”
The 2020 Giro d’Italia winner will ride for Lidl-Trek when he makes his eventual return to racing in 2024 after seven years at Ineos Grenadiers and will become one of their star GC riders with leadership opportunities likely at the Grand Tours.
Geoghegan Hart had looked on form at the Giro before his crash. He was third overall, just five seconds behind overall runner-up and teammate Geraint Thomas, with the eventual race winner Primož Roglič splitting the two Brits.
Speaking to Italian website bici.pro, Geoghegan Hart’s agent João Correia, detailed the reasons for his change of teams and the 28-year-old’s big ambitions for the next three years of his career at Lidl-Trek.
“Behind this division, there is the ambition, which every rider has, of wanting to try something new,” said Correia. “Having different stimuli is good for athletes.
“In the summer there had been talks with Ineos but not everything was clear, for example the role that Tao would have.
“He wants to be a Great Tour rider, a leader but not a lone leader, because in modern cycling it is impossible, we saw it with Ineos.”
Geoghegan Hart will be one of Lidl-Trek’s 2024 leaders in the biggest races alongside Danish Classics and Grand Tour star Mads Pedersen, king of the mountains jersey winner from this year’s Tour de France Giulio Ciccone and Tour de Suisse winner Mattias Skjelmose.
“Tao has one goal: the Tour de France,” said Correia. “A race that he only raced once, in 2021, in support of Carapaz and Thomas.
“Now he has reached an age where he has to say I won a great Giro, now I want to aim high.”
Correia runs Corso Sports Marketing alongside co-founder Ken Sommer and among their clients are João Almeida, Geoghegan Hart and Pedersen, with the latter connection making the Brit’s move to Lidl-trek significantly easier.
“I have a great relationship with [Lidl-Trek General Manager] Luca Guercilena, thanks to the fact that one of my riders, Mads Pedersen, rides for them,” said Correia.
“So speaking with him this opportunity arose and it all happened very quickly. Lidl-Trek was looking for a man to rank in the Grand Tours and the opportunity was important.”
Geoghegan Hart is one of nine Lidl-Trek signings announced for 2024 with Jonathan Milan, Patrick Konrad, Sam Oomen, Carlos Verona, Fabio Felline, Ryan Gibbons, Simone Consonni and Andrea Bagioli also signed onto the American team.
