Haas, 32, wrote of his switch to gravel racing in a blog for Cyclingnews, the Cofidis rider still contracted to the end of 2021, but after that hitting out by himself to race on the gravel full-time after participating in a number of recent events.
Haas reflected upon a career that saw him achieve his best results as a man for the hilly classics who could sprint at the end of a hard day of racing.
“Sure, the white whale of winning Amstel Gold Race never caught on,” wrote Haas, “but I was close, and that's pretty cool too. As my mum has said many times when I didn't win: 'Well, somebody has to lose'. I loved my time in the school of road cycling, so to speak, but it's time to turn the page.
“To express yourself to your best physical potential, it needs to be paired with an equal or greater love and passion for what you're doing.”
Haas’ final two seasons as a professional road cyclist came with Cofidis, his best personal result a third place in the Tour Down Under Stirling stage behind Caleb Ewan. A top-ten in Paris-Camembert was another good result, but the Australian will be best remembered for overall successes at the Herald Sun Tour and the Tour of Britain as well as fighting hard in the classics than for the most recent seasons of his career.
“Again, don't get me wrong, I still love road cycling, I watch it whenever I can, I bleed it,” said Haas. “However, after two very hard years the true love of it maybe slid away as the effects of Covid – both the changes to the intensity of racing post-lockdown and actually having had Covid, in a season in which I never felt I caught back my breath, so to speak – made me realise that it's time to change.
“I'd been training for years on my cyclo-cross bike (now gravel bike, because that's a thing now), to avoid traffic and to get into nature, and the more I did the more I needed it. Quite addictive.
“I threw myself into a few gravel races and I noticed one thing. It was the first time I'd been nervous in a long time. And what does that say? Well, my career is not over, it's just changed. Nerves equals meaning and meaning equals drive.”
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Haas has secured sponsors for the upcoming year, taking his own future into his hands as he looks to make an impact in what is a growing gravel racing scene across the world.
