Heinrich Haussler has been rewarded with a one-year contract extension at Bahrain-Merida after proving his health and fitness in the final months of the season.
The Australian suffered throughout most of 2017 with a serious knee injury. He raced only six days in the first six months of the year but came back strongly in the second half of the year with a run of one-day performances.
The 33-year-old’s career was at one point hanging by a thread but Bahrain-Merida team manager Brent Copeland was so impressed with the Australian's determination that he has extended the rider's contract for a further twelve months. Haussler will now concentrate on another spring Classics campaign.
"Haussler is staying on board. We're keeping him for another year," Copeland told Cyclingnews.
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"We saw how much he was working with gym work and swimming. He was doing everything possible to keep his body in good shape when he was off the bike. We saw that dedication and that's why we decided to give him another year. We need someone for the Classics but we saw all the hard work he was willing to put in. His knee is much better, and we could see that at the Worlds. We definitely need him for next year."
Stability and experience
The Bahrain-Merida project began this year and most of the debutant riders were offered two-year contracts. That meant that Copeland could only make a finite amount of adjustments and changes in the transfer market for 2018.
Janez Brajkovic has left, along with Ondrej Cinq and Tsgabu Grmay. Copeland has brought in a few new faces but is also hoping that a number of the 2017 squad can recapture their best health. Ramunas Navardauskas is recovering from a minor heart operation, while Kanstantin Siutsou and Ion Izagirre are slowly coming back from serious injuries.
"A lot of people were saying that Visconti wasn't staying with us but he signed a two-year deal last year. Then we've signed Matej Mohoric, Kristijan Koren, Gorka Izagirre and we're waiting on Ramunas Navardauskas' medical reports but things look promising. Then we have Hermann Pernsteiner, who comes from mountain biking, and of course Domenico Pozzovivo coming to us," Copeland explained.
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