Chad Haga is well known for his decade of racing on the road at the highest level but, after Human Powered Health ended their men's ProTeam at the end of 2023, the Texan transitioned to gravel, as many ex-pros have done. A second-place finish in the Unbound Gravel 200 against the deepest, most competitive field in the event's history showed the 35-year-old's post-road career is more than just a fun retirement exercise.
Haga went on the attack with Lachlan Morton (EF Education-EasyPost) at Unbound, and while he had to concede defeat in the sprint, the result was a confirmation that his efforts in becoming a gravel privateer were worthwhile.
"It's a relief," Haga said after Unbound. "It's my first year racing gravel, it's a big fight to try and get sponsorships, and I've got a few key ones, but a result like this will help prove that I'm not a roadie that came to gravel for a retirement. I very much enjoy this."
Not only did Haga not make the podium at Unbound, but he was the second-fastest rider in the quickest-ever edition of the 200-mile race – all in his debut at the unforgiving race.
"I knew that the field was so deep and strong that it would not work well for me to attack super early," Haga told Cyclingnews. "I needed guys to wear themselves out a bit. My tactic was to weather the storm and wait for the moment that guys started showing signs of fatigue, and then see if I could get out front.
"I really didn't know much about the course at all. I hadn't been in Emporia quite long enough to do a proper long recon of the northernmost part. It's just the way that we raced it. Every time we would get to a minimum maintenance road, they would just absolutely smash it at the front and split the bunch.
'Then we'd get to the other side and everybody would look at each other and it would regroup, and we would pedal to the next one, and then do it all over again. So it was just a very on-off nature that I did not like."
So, Haga made a move when Dutch rider Thijs Zonneveld launched an attack and he and Morton eventually made it to him. They dropped Zonneveld, who had a puncture, and rode away from the rest of the bunch.
It turned out that Unbound was perfect for an ex-WorldTour domestique like Haga who has years of riding on the front of the peloton in his legs.
"I could sense the power that I could do. Once I was out front with Lachlan, I didn't need to consult a power meter to hold the same pace. I knew what I could hold and just kind of did it by the fact of having done it many times before.
"We didn't have time splits, and so I didn't know how much time that we had to play with, so that also affected how late we had to start racing, or how late we could start maybe playing games if we wanted to," he added.
"During the race, I had a moment, I guess, probably around the last hour, where Lachlan and I were still just motoring, and neither one of us was showing any real sign of fatigue. And I thought 'I think that we're going to do it'. That means I've got a 50-50 shot of winning Unbound on my first try!"
Haga couldn't match Morton in the end, having led out the sprint and watched the Australian blast past, he went through the bittersweet feeling of getting on the podium but not the top step.
"With 100 meters to go, I was leading. Now I'm second. So emotions were all over the place as I came to that reality," he said.
However, the bitter emotions soon wore off as Haga reunited with his teammates Tobias Kongstad, who finished third, and Sien Nordahl Svendsen who landed in sixth.
"There was no sadness, like, 'Oh, I wish I would have won', it was just the three of us – we all had a perfect race. We're just pumped for each other and for the team. And that night we had a barbecue at our Airbnb, and all the mechanics and the swannies that we had at the race were with us so we just celebrated as a team."
A new career
Haga's WorldTour career began to wind down at the end of 2021 when he announced he was leaving DSM after eight years with the team. He spent the next two years with Human Powered Health, but then the men's team closed at the end of the 2023 season.
His next steps came from a season-end tradition of doing "epic adventure road rides, " which naturally led to an interest in gravel. But with the rise in popularity of gravel among ex-WorldTour pros, Haga knew he needed to do something to prove himself before setting out.
Living in Girona, naturally, his first step was to set the fastest known time on the Traka 360 course on his own time.
"Last fall I set out to set the course record on last year's 360 course solo, as a way to announce my presence and try and garner some sponsorships," Haga said.
"I was having trouble getting sponsorships, because at that point I was just another retired roadie racing gravel, asking for money. And so I wanted to prove I'm not here as someone asking for retirement handouts, I'm here to race seriously, and I'm very capable at it.
"[The Traka 360 record] was 12 hours and 56 minutes, and I did it in 12 hours and 52. So I felt like that was a strong statement. It did get the attention of the PAS Racing team and got me on this squad. So it was worthwhile."
Haga raced the Traka 360 earlier this year, finishing third. "Not to discredit Unbound, but The Traka 360 was actually my biggest personal goal this year. It was my first event as a gravel privateer, really," Haga said.
"The Traka is a home race for me [living in Girona]. I'm on the course at some point every single ride. So that was big. The heart wanted that one a lot."
Unfortunately, he made some mistakes with fuelling and had to fight off a hunger knock en route to finishing third. It was a good test for the slightly shorter Unbound 200. With two podiums in the bag now, Haga headed back to Spain and to his family of four.
"I'm committed to doing gravel at least one more year. Like, I'm not ready to be done racing. I'm very much enjoying gravel, but I also have a young family, and so trying to balance all of that, but I'm not doing it just as a way to not stop [competing].
"I'm sincerely enjoying this, and so I am more passionate about it right now than I have been about road racing for a few years now. It's not really a transition from road – this is the start of a new career. The way that I'm feeling about it, that's great."
With his two major goals behind him, Haga is now going off in pursuit of an elusive victory.
"The Traka and Unbound were the two races that I cared about the most this year. So now, I feel like the pressure is off. I podiumed both of them. I still want to win something, so I'm gonna race hard, but I just feel like I'm gonna go out there race hard and see what happens, without really any pressure."
There's a possible trip back to Colorado for SBT GRVL and, if he's selected, the UCI Gravel World Championships.
"I would like to do it, but knowing that the course doesn't suit me quite as well as Unbound, that's the problem. Being a diesel, I need everybody to wear themselves out for six hours, and then I'm good to go.
"Some of these races are a bit shorter than that, so it's that's kind of the exciting part of gravel racing. There's not a ton of nine to 14-hour races to choose from."
