Cervélo TestTeam announced today that sprinter Heinrich Haussler will miss this year's Tour de France due to persistent knee problems. The team said his place on the Tour roster will be taken by Daniel Lloyd.
Unfortunately for Haussler, his results from last year have taken the form of misery and crashes during 2010. The talented 26 year old looked set to build on his second place finishes in both Milan-Sanremo and the Tour of Flanders last year, until a sequence of crashes brought his spring campaign to a halt. Four was the unlucky number for the German in the early season, after hitting the pavement in that numbered stage in both the Volta ao Algarve and Paris-Nice.
Despite his problems, Haussler has still managed to put up some solid results this season. He got off to a strong start at the Tour of Qatar and finished second in two stages. In between his stage four misfortunes, the Cervélo TestTeam rider showed his class by coming back from his first setback to win the sprint for second at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. He was then out of commission until the Tour of California, where his troubles continued with a crash in the final kilometers of the first stage. He was able to start to following day and showed good form in the mountains there, but another tumble in the opening kilometers of stage five sent him packing for Germany.
His next race was the Tour de Suisse, and Haussler went to work straight away with a stage two victory in Sierre. The win demonstrated that his form was on track for a successful Tour de France, but he was involved in another crash just 50 meters short of a stage six victory, and was forced to abandon the race. The fact that he was on his way to beating Mark Cavendish, who was blamed for causing the crash by the race jury, will leave many green jersey questions unanswered.
“Heinrich’s knee pain came back during the Tour de Suisse,” said team doctor Andreas Goesele. “He did not finish that race in order to have some days off the bike. He felt better and everything seemed to be improving as he prepared for the Tour de France. But in the last few days the pain has come back again more intensely than before and so it was obvious to us, he could not race. Now we will operate and do arthroscopic surgery on him next week and after that he will start rehabilitation. We will then have to wait until after the operation before making any further statements regarding his plans for the remainder of the season.”
Haussler was optimistic about his latest setback and, assuming he can get past his injury, will have the motivation to make him a good candidate for the World Championships road race in Australia.
“It is a pity that I cannot compete in the Tour de France this year. I am well aware that for a Tour de France you must to be 100 percent healthy. Though my season so far has not been under a good star, I will not give up. I hold my head high looking ahead to my next goals. I am young and will get my chance again,” said Haussler. “My focus is now on the recovery process and we will decide later when I can make my comeback. The health has first priority and I want to be 100 percent fit before I return on the start line.”