Haga, who finished fifth in Wednesday's time trial, tweeted about his adventure after the stage, leading off with a picture of the damage done to his bike when an errant steel bar smashed into his back wheel.
Haga continued to unwind his tale from there:
"With ~2km remaining in the neutral start, at ~40kph, a thin steel pipe in the road got kicked up, bounced around, and went into my spokes.
"It jammed against my seat stays (breaking both), and I managed to keep the bike straight. Somehow the peloton avoided me.
"A teammate radioed my puncture (I blew out the tire skidding), and the team car missed me at the side of the road, (we can't figure out how).
"Our 2nd team car was ahead of the race to give bottles on a climb, and cars can't go backwards on the course. Neutral service passed me too.
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"Mercifully, @TeamDiData stopped and offered a bike so I could get to my team car. It had speedplay pedals, and we ride shimano...
"While I was bracing for an upcoming speed bump while sitting on a small bike w icy pedals, a car pulled into the convoy from a gas station.
"I managed to dodge it. Finally we arrived at my team car 500m before km0 to get my spare bike. Meanwhile, they started the race without me.
"Today's stage started with 1.5km at 9%, which was a heck of a time to learn I'd burned the whole week's ration of matches in yday's TT.
"And so I chased thru the cars for 6km until I finally regained contact.
"Anyway, thanks to @TeamDiData for the sporting help in a crazy situation!"
Haga finished 144th in the 175km stage, 2:35 down on teammate Phil Bauhaus, who won in a bunch sprint. The 28-year-old American is currently 82nd overall, 9:21 behind race leader Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal).
Trebon, Sho-Air launch new US cyclo-cross series
Retired cyclo-cross pro Ryan Trebon and Sho-Air International have teamed up to launch a new national cyclo-cross series for 2017.
As fist reported in VeloNews, the series, dubbed the USCup-CX, feature seven races from four existing events, the KMC CrossFest in Connecticut, the Charm City Cross in Baltimore, Cincinnati Cyclocross in Ohio, and the Derby City Cup in Louisville, Kentucky.
"We really saw a need for some type of national CX series where an overall championship was on the line," US Cup founder R. Scott Tedro said in a statements published on the series website. "This series will give fans and riders alike something to follow, while still allowing racers with World Cup aprirations to pursue their goals. We really wanted to showcase the talented men and women here in North America while putting some extra money n their pockets."
The men and women will share equal payouts of a combined overall championship prize list of $20,000.
2017 USCup-CX:
KMC CrossFest: September 30 - October 1 (C1/C2)
Charm City Cross: October 7-8 (C1-C2)
Cincinnatti Cyclocross: October 28-29 (C1)
Derby City Cup: November 4 (C2)
US Pro Road Tour continues at Tulsa Tough
USA Cycling's 2017 Pro Road Tour continues this weekend with Tulsa Tough, a three-day criterium omnium in Oklahoma.
The racing starts Friday evening with the Blue Dome Critetium, then moves uptown Saturday night for the Brady Arts District Criterium. The omnium concludes Sunday with the River Parks Criterium and its multiple ascents through the always-rowdy crowd lining Cry Baby Hill.
Hot Route Racing's Daniel Holloway won the men's omnium last year, while Samantha Schneider (ISCorp Cycling) took the women's win.
Redlands Bicycle Classic overall winner TJ Eisenhart (Holowsko-Citadel) currently leads the men's Pro Road Tour series ahead of UnitedHealthcare's Gavin Mannion and Holowesko's Robin Carpenter, who won the Winston-Salem Classic.
Ruth Winder leads the women's series ahead of UnitedHealthcare teammate Katie Hall. Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank's Lauren Stephens is third.
In the team standings, Rally Cycling leads the men's rankings ahead of UnitedHealthcare and Holowesko. UnitedHealthcare leads the women's rankings ahead of Tibco and Rally.
Armed Forces Classic tests revenue-sharing model with teams
This weekend's Armed Forces Cycling Classic is trying out a new business model for providing live streams for spectators while introducing a revenue-sharing plan with teams.
Interested fans can watch both the Clarendon Cup on Saturday and the Crystal Cup on Sunday by purchasing a subscription to the Monumental Sports Network, the local production company that will be providing the stream. Monumental Sports Network is also the broadcast partner for local professional sports franchises including the Washington Wizards, Washington Capitals, Washington Mystics, Washington Valor and Baltimore Brigade, among others.
"As we increase the viewership of our program, we will be able to invest even more in the overall programing quality, which we think will better showcase our event to the fans, and as a consequence, bring more fans into our sport," said Rob Laybourn, president of Arlington Sports, Inc., the group that organises the races. "Monumental Sports Network has a long history with pro sports, and we're excited to partner with them to increase our level of engagement and reach."
The day-of, live broadcast will be offered to the public for $9.99, which will include a month's offering of Monumental Sports Network's programming. Fans can take advantage of special discounts through team landing pages for participating teams, starting at $6.99 for pre-orders and increasing to $7.99. Participating teams will receive 30 percent of the proceeds from each sale that they generate. Laybourn said at least two teams have already pledged their shares to charities.
