Cervélo Test Team rider a possible home winner in 2010 world championship
After deliberating for several years, Cervélo Test Team rider Heinrich Haussler has finally opted to give up his German passport, and should now be eligible to compete in the world road race championships for Australia.
The 26 year old grew up in the latter country but then moved to Germany at the age of 14 in order to better his chances of a sporting career. His father is from that country and Haussler attended school there, then went on to gain a contract as a pro cyclist.
He finished second in the 2009 Milan Sanremo and then won stage 13 in last year’s Tour de France.
“It was not an easy decision to give up my German citizenship, but I came to a point in my life where I decided to follow my feelings,” he said today. “I had the lucky situation that I was the owner of two passports, but I feel more Australian and therefore I made the final decision to ride in the future for the country where I grew up.”
One possible incentive is that this year’s world championships will be held in the Southern hemisphere country. He’s both a strong sprinter and a good rider on undulating terrain, and so he should start the race with a decent chance of chasing victory on home soil.
Haussler will continue living in Freiburg and said that he is not severing his ties. “It was definitely a hard choice. Germany is still really important to me and I have many friends here,” he said. “I would also like to take the opportunity to say thank you to all the people who have supported me along the way so far, especially the German national cycling federation.”
The Cervélo rider was due to compete in this year’s Tour de France and showed a strong return from injury when he won stage two of the Tour de Suisse. However he tangled with the HTC Columbia rider Mark Cavendish two days later and crashed out of the race. His knee injury flared up again due to the impact with the ground, ruling him out of the Tour de France.
He underwent surgery in recent days in order to correct the issue.
It is not yet certain when he will return to racing, but the thoughts of wearing Australian colours in Geelong this autumn will spur him on.
Not a spur of the moment choice:
As he confirmed in an interview with Velonation earlier this year, Haussler has been pondering the issue for quite some time. He said in February that he was not going to rush into making a choice, but would weigh things up carefully.
“It is something I am not going to make a decision about until after the Classics. It is also not a decision you make every day…I want to sit down and speak with my family, my girlfriend,” he said then.
One possible obstacle for a rider who wishes to compete under a different nationality in the world championships is a UCI rule stating that they cannot have competed for the initial country for several seasons. This doesn’t however affect him. “I think there is a three or four year period,” he confirmed then. “However I think I was 19 the last time I rode at the world championships, so that is not a problem.”