Heinrich Haussler supports the German LKT Brandenburg team and for this the team now honored him. The jersey in 2010 will feature a ‘racing kangaroo.’ The Australian-German Haussler still trains with riders from the German Continental outfit when he is in the Cottbus area and Michael Max has been his coach for eight years.
Haussler joined T-Mobile in 2004, but hasn’t forgotten who he got his start with in Germany. “I owe a lot to the team and especially to Max,” he told rad-net.de. “I am happy to give something back. Besides the LKT team, I also support the youth team of my hometown Inverell [Australia]. Inverell and Cottbus are my hometowns. I hope to set a mark with this engagement so that other sponsors will find a way to cycling,” Haussler said.
Haussler especially uses the preparation period to train in Cottbus, where he gets his base miles in and also does his power workouts. The rest of the year he lives in Freiburg, in southern Germany, where he has better options for mountain climbs.
The Australian Haussler came to Germany 14 years ago to become a professional bike racer. He now holds both citizenships, but has always made it clear he wants to go back to Australia, where he feels more at home. He even wanted to race the World Championships for Australia and was skipping past Worlds in order to fulfill the three-year requirement before he is eligible to change teams. However, the latest news was that he couldn’t race for Australia, so it looks like Germany will be his affiliation should he race in Australia this year.
Haussler’s Cervélo TestTeam teammate Martin Reimer, the German road champion, also raced for LKT Brandenburg in the past. The current team contains track stars Roger Kluge and Robert Bartko.