Haussler on track for the Tour

Heinrich Haussler is back where he left off 6 weeks ago. After a month and a half racing break he returned with a win in GP Triberg last Saturday.

The Inverell boy and now Cervélo TestTeam rider, was runner-up in Milano-Sanremo and the Ronde van Vlaanderen this spring. Now his new goal for the second part of the season is a stage win at the Tour de France.

"Iwill be going for the sprints and I could also see myself winning thegreen jersey. I know my form has returned and is good now, but I alsoknow it is going to get better,"Haussler said.

Haussler is expected be one of the nine men in the Swiss team to race the Tour de France, July 4 to July 26. He will be together with defending champion Carlo Sastre and 2005 points classification (green jersey) winner, Thor Hushovd.

"IfCarlos should should be in the yellow jersey; you never know what thissituation will demand from the team. It all depends on what the teammanager will ask me to do."

Cervélo's sports directors may decide to have the 25-year-old Inverell boy to go for stage wins and the green jersey based on his early season's results and current form.

Hausslerwon twice in the spring, including a stage at Paris-Nice, and then hada string of top finishes in the Classics which saw him top the worldrankings for over 2 months.

Haussler's racing break was very well timed. On his return he placed second in two stages of the Bayern Rundfahrt, second in the Neuseen Classics, won the GP Triberg and took third in the GP Kanton Aargau. The GP Triberg is the hardest one day bike race in Germany.

"Ihad a really good time off the bike. I had 12 days of complete stopduring the holidays. When I came back I hit my left knee on thehandlebars in my first training ride. It was swollen and I had to takeanother 10 days off. I was thinking, this will set me back a lot, Ihave had too much time off the bike,' but it worked out well.

"Iknow the people were thinking that I had a good spring and that is it,but I have already come back strong. That race I won on Saturday (The GP Triberg) was areally hard race, tough conditions and lots of climbs."

Haussler has raced and finished the Tour de France twice, in 2007 and in 2008. He finished 22nd in the points competition last year.

He's currently racing in the Tour de Suisse, and he will line up at the German Championships, June 28 in Cottbus where he went to school for several years.