Heinrich Haussler will return to racing later this month at the Tour du Poitou Charentes. The IAM Cycling leader broke his pelvis back in June at the Tour de Suisse but has confirmed that he will race after a quicker than expected period of recovery.
The Australian has already spent two weeks on the bike after a period of healing and rehabilitation and after spending an initial five weeks off the bike, is now training regularly for up to 7 hours a day.
“The healing has been perfect, and this week I’ve not had any problems whatsoever. Already only five days after the accident I was having three to four hours of physiotherapy a day,” Haussler told Cyclingnews.
“But really it’s the people who have been working on me that I really have to thank because without them I wouldn’t be back on the bike. I didn’t expect to be back on the bike this early.”
Before his crash, Haussler had enjoyed a relatively successful campaign with IAM Cycling. Having called time on his Garmin career he signed up for the Swiss team before taking aim at the Classics. Although he fell short of the 2009 form that saw him stand on the podiums in Milan San-Remo and the Tour of Flanders, he delivered a number of consistent performances, culminating with a win in Bayern Rundfahrt.
“I just want to get as much racing in my legs as possible because it’s not the same as training and it’s all important for next year’s Classics. Even now though, I don’t feel like I’ve even lost anything. It’s not like back in 2010,” he said, pointing to injury problems that plagued him for almost two years and led to knee surgery.