Most big-name riders have revealed their goals and major race programmes for the new season but Tao Geoghegan Hart has a more pragmatic and honest approach to 2025.
He likes the recently revealed Giro d'Italia route and it is five years since his victory in the 2020 Corsa Rosa but he is still working to return to that level of success after fracturing his femur in the 2023 Giro.
Last year, after leaving Ineos Grenadiers for Lidl-Trek, Geoghegan Hart was set to ride the Tour de France but COVID-19 and illness wrecked those hopes.
He ended his 2024 season battling through the Vuelta a España. The three weeks of racing laid new foundations for his recovery but he then spent eight weeks off the bike to recover from surgery to remove the titanium bar and screws that had been placed in his femur.
Geoghegan Hart will start his 2025 season at the Volta ao Algarve in late February. He has designed a possible race programme with Lidl-Trek but does not want to reveal it just yet. He wants the reassurance of his early racing before aiming higher.
"I really want to take the focus, not necessarily race by race, but certainly focus on the first period. That's my big goal," Geoghegan Hart said in a video call with the media, including Cyclingnews.
"This time of year there's a lot of headlines about people's targets and announcements but that's the reality for me. I think it's a little bit nonsensical to look past that and to start looking at big goals.
"I really tried that last year after coming back. We were already talking about the Tour with the team before I'd even ridden the bike. It was super inspiring at the time but now it feels like a more logical approach to me is just to focus on getting back to my best and feeling really like the page has been turned from breaking my leg in 2023."
Now almost 30 years old and after two testing seasons, Geoghegan Hart appears more introspective. He is still ambitious but more patient, with lots of realism. His answers are long and considered.
"When I was a much younger rider, one of the managers in my previous team said there are basically three types of riders: riders who win races, riders who are learning to win races and riders who help others win races. This is the period of my career where I really want to be a rider that makes results," he explained.
"The day I broke my leg, I was 100% sure I was going to fight for the GC in that Grand Tour and that's something that's super inspiring to me. That's the reason I started this sport.
"That's the aim, to come back there. But first, there are steps before that, which is being competitive, even in smaller races. My aim is to be back competing and leading my team and leading my teammates, making a nice group around me to really try and win races in a nice way, or, or at least give it a good try."
Geoghegan Hart arguably deserves some success after the difficulties he has overcome in 2023 and 2024. He wants it for himself, his family and his Lidl-Trek team. "It would be super nice to get some wins," he says.
"It's easier said than done. I think it would also be super satisfying to be fighting for the GC, of the races, and more than anything, just feeling like things are clicking. I think that's the key thing. I'm hoping, with 12 months of training and racing in the legs, that that will kind of give me another layer to the performance.
"I would like to be here next year and see that the team recognizes me as someone who's contributing at races, leading the team, doing that off the bike as much as on it. That's important for me. It's about feeling like the purpose is being fulfilled.
"Personally it's that you feel that all the hard work that you put in and the shit that you put your family through and they have to watch these races, is worth it."
