From a last-minute camera purchase to a Giro collab with Campenaerts: meet cycling's newest content creator

Victor Campenaerts has become known for his daily Instagram vlogs from the Visma | Lease a Bike bus at every Grand Tour. Unibet Rose Rockets share a similar behind-the-scenes series on YouTube. What fewer followers may know is that Jack Haig has also started making some genuinely great videos. The Australian spoke to IDL Pro Cycling in Bulgaria about how it all started.

The 32-year-old Haig is a rider with a serious palmares. He turned professional with Orica-GreenEdge in 2016, before spending five years at Bahrain Victorious. The 2021 Vuelta a España podium finisher joined Netcompany INEOS this season, where he is now riding the Giro d'Italia.

Since late March, Haig has been making a real impact on Instagram, sharing creative glimpses into the life of a professional cyclist. Training rides at altitude, a spell in South Limburg with the INEOS team during the Ardennes classics, always with a fresh angle and an eye for the unexpected.

"It actually all started with a chat on the team bus after Strade Bianche, on the way back to the hotel," Haig tells IDL Pro Cycling about how he got the idea. "I'm new to the team, and I got talking to someone from our media department about social media and everything that comes with it."

"After Milan-San Remo I went to altitude camp in Tenerife, where we have a lot of free time outside of training," he continues. "Two days before I left, I thought: how hard can it be, making videos? So I went to an electronics store and bought a camera, without having any idea what I was getting myself into," laughs the affable Australian.

And so the posting began. "From that moment on, I spent pretty much every spare minute at the training camp figuring out how to make things with it. The videos themselves, but also the edits. How? By watching a lot of YouTube tutorials, using AI, and doing lots of experimenting. At the start it took a really long time to get anything finished, but it's getting faster now."

"Through that whole learning experience, I brought the other guys at altitude along with me on the process, which was actually really fun and interesting," says Haig, who was on camp with Arensman and others. "When I got back from Tenerife, I also bought a 360-degree camera so I could make even better videos."

When we caught up with Haig at the stage three start, his latest video had been posted before the race began. "I kept it going through the Classics, and I've had a few people ask whether I'd do it during the Giro too — but race days are just a bit different. I can't film much, and what I can film is mostly just in the bus."

"And it's not that interesting to watch me sitting on a bus for 21 days in a row — but on rest days I'll try to keep things going," he promises. "Ultimately it's been a great experience, and it kept me nicely occupied in my free time on Tenerife. Otherwise I'd probably have just been scrolling through social media. Instead, I was producing content myself."

It might seem like it's primarily done for fun, but Haig is genuinely conscious of the value it brings to cycling fans. "It's great to be able to show it from this perspective. I think cycling doesn't always do a great job of building personalities or showing what our days actually look like. The less polished content, let's call it that."

Haig is far from alone in this — Campenaerts and Unibet Rose Rockets have both been doing it in their own ways. "On the first day of the Giro I had a really long chat with Victor straight away. He wants to do a collab if we end up in the same hotel," Haig says with a grin from ear to ear.

"His social media career is a bit further ahead than mine — he manages to make a video every single day and get his teammates involved. I'm maybe still a bit too reserved to do that right now, but Victor really encouraged me to do it daily. That was really cool of him."

And finally: what does Haig want to say to his potential new followers from Belgium, the Netherlands and beyond? "I hope people can enjoy the behind-the-scenes look I want to give them, and that with their support I can keep the motivation to keep producing content for them."

"Ultimately we do this sport for personal and collective goals, but we're also a form of entertainment. Hopefully I can contribute something to that in this way!"