Haussler promises carnage with Garmin-Cervélo at next year's Classics

Heinrich Haussler will miss the world championships in Australia due to his knee injury but he's continued with his 2010 season as preparation for the next year's campaign with Garmin-Cervélo. Haussler showed an interesting return to form at the Tour de Vendée as he gave a good lead-out to teammate Davide Appollonio who finished second to Koldo Fernandez (Euskaltel-Euskadi).

"I've been on the bike for four weeks only," Haussler told Cyclingnews at the start of the Tour de Vendée in Montaigu. "It was not enough for the Tour of Britain where I resumed racing. I stopped in the first stage. That was not my type of racing.

"My knee is okay now but in terms of condition I'm not near where I could be. I'm just turning the pedals towards the end of the season as a preparation for next year."

Haussler has two races remaining on his schedule with the Münsterland Giro in Germany next week and Paris-Bourges on October 7, after which he'll return to Australia for family purposes and training. "Paris-Tours on October 10 would have been the only race I would have done intense training for but we haven't been invited by race organisers," said the Cervélo rider.

Haussler was on the pre-selection list of the Australian national team for the world championship in Geelong and had hoped to earn the rainbow jersey on home soil after giving up his German citizenship and choosing to race for the country where he was born. Haussler, however, didn't make the final cut due to a lack of form.

"It's bad to miss the Worlds in Australia because it's probably only once in a lifetime," he said. "But I didn't want to start if I wasn't at 100 percent of my capacities. I preferred to have physiotherapy and resume racing later than take any risk for the future."

The runner-up at the Circuit Het Nieuwsblad, who had his 2010 season ruined by a knee injury, will be part of the super team Garmin-Cervélo next year. "I've had a lot of offers when [the news of the dissolution of the Cervélo Test Team] came out," he said. "I preferred to continue with Thor Hushovd and the same group of guys, and the Cervélo bikes too. If the chemistry is good, we're gonna be winning a lot of races. With Johan Vansummeren, Tyler Farrar and maybe David Millar if he's up for it again, if we're all in good form at the Classics, it's gonna be carnage!"

Haussler announced that he won't contest Farrar's leadership in the category of the team's sprinters. "I don't want to do the sprints anymore," he said. "I'll just concentrate on one-day races now."