At several points in the last five years Heinrich Haussler’s career has teetered on the edge of a precipice. The knee injuries, the horrific crash in the 2013 Tour de Suisse that could have ended his career, and a 2014 spring campaign that never got going, had all combined to create a collage of unfulfilled potential.
Yet despite the knocks, and there have been many, the Australian has begun this season with hopes revitalised. His injuries and aliments appear to be behind him, he and his IAM Cycling have made the WorldTour and at the Australian Nationals last month – a race Haussler won – there were flashes of the brilliance his legs still process.
He opens up by describing that win as massive for his morale and self belief. After all, 2014 had been injury free but the Classics had been a complete whitewash. The win in Australia was sorely needed.
"We came into Australia looking to focus on Nationals and Tour Down Under, and then a couple of weeks before we found out that Simon Gerrans had broken his collarbone. That meant we had a really good chance at Nationals because it meant that the race would have been wide open,” he tells Cyclingnews.
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“So far I’m happy with the form and the results but of course the only thing that counts are the wins," he says, as he quickly glances at the national jersey that sits a few feet away.
His teammates dutifully listen in, with the occasional nod of approval as if to say ‘we get it boss’.
When we sit down for his interview he explains the change in him.
“My fiancé, she’s having twins in April and life is going to change after that,’ he says with a smile.
“This sport, it’s been frustrating for me for a long time but I still love it and I’m still passionate about it. But it takes a toll because you sacrifice your whole life for the bloody sport. You sacrifice everything and there’s no real lifestyle off the bike. You have to love it to do it, and you get paid for it but you still have to sacrifice relationships with people and that’s hard.” At 30, Haussler should be at the peak of his fitness and potential. The injuries he has gone through and the races he has missed perhaps will give him a little more elastic when it comes to maintaining a place in the top echelons of the sport but he is already talking about how he will feel when he looks back at his career.
The fall in Suisse left him with a broken pelvis and shattered hip and it came just as it looked like he was returning to rider that dazzled everyone in the Spring and Summer of 2009. "Last season was about creating the foundations," Haussler says. "Of racking up the miles and ticking off a Grand Tour for the first time in three years.
“It meant that I was starting from scratch all over again. Since 2009 it’s been like that. You just need one good year in your legs in order to have a strong following season but since 2009 I’ve just had constant problems with my knees, with crashes and pulling out. I hadn’t done a Grand Tour since 2011 but then I did the Tour last year and even though I had to pull out, I finished with a full season in my legs. That’s been so important when you look at where I am now.
The Tour de Suisse crash, he says, was the toughest point in his career. It was certainly the hardest to come back from but the sight of him at the finish of Milan San-Remo in 2011, when he was simply unable to follow the best riders on the final two climbs, is also etched in his memory banks. He crossed the line that day and broke down in tears soon after. It wasn’t because he had lost or because of the pain in his legs but simply because he couldn’t do what had once come so easily to him.
“It doesn’t matter which one, it really doesn’t," he says with that smile again.
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