Heinrich Haussler calls time on cycling career

Veteran Australian road cyclist Heinrich Haussler has announced the end of his professional cycling career.

Haussler’s trade team Bahrain Victorious issued a statement yesterday saying the 39-year-old will transition to a sports director role.

The decision came after cardiac investigations that required “various treatment options” to be considered. Ultimately, “it was decided that the risks associated with continued elite-level sport participation were greater than the benefits”.

It marks the end of an 18-year career that included 22 professional victories. Among them were two Grand Tour stages and the 2015 Australian road race national title.

Haussler's last career win was the 2015 Australian road title. (Photo: John Veage)

Haussler was raised in Inverell in northern New South Wales and started cycling at six years of age.

In 2005, after moving to his father’s home country of Germany, he began his career with the Gerolsteiner team and won a stage of the Vuelta a España in his first season.

While most of Haussler’s wins were in stage races, he built his career around the one-day classics. In 2009, he finished second in Milan San-Remo and the Ronde van Vlaanderen. That year, he also won a Tour de France stage from a solo breakaway.

In 2010, Haussler renounced his German citizenship with the goal of representing Australia at a home UCI Road World Championships. Cruelly, he missed out on Geelong 2010 due to injury, but he would go on to race for Australia at seven UCI World Championships.

In 2015, he won the Australian road race national championship in Buninyong, beating Caleb Ewan in a reduced sprint to take the green-and-gold jersey.

Fittingly, his last race was in Wollongong, where he finally achieved his goal of racing a World Championship on home soil. There, Haussler helped deliver Michael Matthews to a bronze medal in the 2022 UCI Road Race World Championship.

Haussler (right) alongside Michael Matthews at the World Championships in Wollongong. (Photo: Getty Sport)

“This sport is something that has grown on me, and I’m super passionate about, it’s become my lifestyle, and it will live with me forever: the memories and the people I’ve met and the places that I’ve seen,” Haussler said.

“If I look back now, there are tears of joy along with a sadness that I have to stop, but I’m happy … I’ve been able to say I gave everything and can move on to the next stage of my life.

“I want to stay in this sport, and I want to become a sports director which is something I’ve been planning for in the last three to four years, and at the end of every year I had to decide if I wanted to move to the car or keep riding, and my passion for the sport always kept me out there.

Photo: Sprint Cycling / Team Bahrain Victorious.

“I probably would have tried to continue living that dream into my 40s as it’s never been a job to me; I’m fortunate enough to have made a career from my hobby. There is a lot I can look back on and be happy with what I’ve achieved in cycling.

“Now I look to the next chapter on helping the new generation and sharing my experience, especially in the classics or lead-outs.”

Feature photo: Getty Sport