Cycling Profile: Heinrich Haussler
Heinrich Haussler is an Australian professional road cyclist who started his career in 2005 and is currently with team Garmin-Cervelo. Haussler started as a German professional as he had dual nationalities because his father was German and mother was Australian.
In 2008, Haussler said during an interview with a famous cycling website that he will no longer be racing for Germany as he showed interest to race for Australia in 2010.
Haussler was once asked in 2008 to select one amongst UCI Road World Championships or the 2008 Olympics to which he replied, “I wouldn’t take it. If you start for a country at the worlds there is a three year ban before you can ride for another.” The cyclist
was required by UCI to select between his nationalities and to give up his German nationality if he wish to race for Australia.
The 27-year-old was born in Australia and decided to start his professional cycling career in Germany and decided to leave Australia at the age of 14. It was in 1997 when Oliver Muschwerk helped him achieve his goals and provided him the support that helped
him throughout as he was looking ahead to start his career in the Europe.
Jurgen Kummer was his first trainer and the responsibilities were later on taken over by Rainer Gatzke as mentioned by Haussler on his personal website, “My first trainer Jurgen Kummer and my later trainer Rainer Gatzke taught me all the necessary things
which I as an Aussie didn’t know.” He further added that he was lucky enough to have the best combination of the German training and Australian upbringing as they helped him a lot towards the success.
Heinrich first wins came during the 2005 Vuelta a Espana when he won a stage at the mega event followed by a successful next year as he bagged five wins in 2006.
Cyclist gave up his German nationality and decided to race for Australia as it was officially announced by his team Garmin Cervelo.
At the start of 2010, Haussler had to face a knee injury during a crash in Tour of Algarve and before he could fully recover he involved himself in yet another crash at Paris-Nice which made it worse for him and he had to miss the classics because of the
serious knee condition.
Despite the disappointment Heinrich came back with a stage win in the Tour de France, 2009 and also participated in the World Championships during the same year.
He has developed himself as an attacking cyclist and sprinting is considered as his major strength, during the Milan San Remo, 2009 he lost by centimetres to Mark Cavendish after launching his attack towards the end and answered many questions asked about
his potential.
Haussler had rough previous seasons and has really missed on any mega event since 2009 and is finally glad to find his name on the Vuelta a Espana, 2011 squad as he will be representing his team Garmin Cervelo in the event starting on August 20.
Team Garmin Cervelo will be moving to Spain with Daniel Martin and Christophe le Mevel to lead the team while Heinrich and Tyler Farrar will be competing in sprints.
Heinrich Haussler is hopeful for the coming Vuelta and believes that racing in the Vuelta will give him the required strengths back that he had been missing since quite a while as he mentioned, “I’ve not done a three week Tour for two years. It’s not just
about the Worlds training, though; it’s also for next year as well.”
Haussler finished 4th in final stage 7 of Tour of Poland, 2011 with 17 points as he finished the race 12:04 behind the race leader Peter Sagan after the final general classifications at the Tour of Poland, 2011.
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