Life in the Peloton – with Heinrich Haussler & Mitch Docker
A wonderful podcast with Mitch Docker and Inverell's Professional Cyclist Heinrich Haussler. Listen to this 90 minute of the boy that left Inverell at the tender age of 14 years to chase his dream to become one of the best in world cycling. Find out how proud he is of his hometown Inverell and how much it means to him to be an Australian.
It's great to be back for another season of Life in the Peloton and for my first episode of the new year I caught up with someone I've been wanting to get on the pod for a long time.
It's the German Aussie Heinrich Haussler. Even though I've known him a long time, there were so many things I wanted to talk to Heino about. For a start, is he German or is he Australian? He won the Aussie champs and has ridden for Australia but he moved to Germany in his early teens and much of his development in cycling was thanks to the German system.
We also talked about some of his biggest wins, particularly his stage win in the 2009 Tour de France and towards the end of the pod I asked him why, in his mid-30s, he's started racing cyclo-cross.
This is the first podcast of 2021 and the plan is very much the same as last year. Life in the Peloton will be released fortnightly here on The Cycling Podcast feed and in between there'll be an episode of Talking Luft over on the original Life in the Peloton feed.
If you missed any of last year's episodes and need to catch up, there's a link to the 2020 playlist below.
In the meantime, sit back and listen to Heino and I hope you enjoy it.
Cheers,
Mitch
This episode is supported by Harry's. Get started today with your Harry's trial set at harrys.com/cycling (https://www.harrys.com/go/gb-pod-2020?dc=CYCLINGPODSG&utm_medium=sponsorship-podcast&utm_source=The+Cycling+Podcast&utm_campaign=audioBoom&utm_content=2020freeshowergeltp--495_trial&crid=2020freeshowergeltp--495_trial&hid=&name=The+Cycling+Podcast+listeners.+Your+FREE+Shower+Gel+will+be+added+at+checkout)
Life in the Peloton 2020 playlist (https://audioboom.com/playlists/4630938-life-in-the-peloton-with-mitch-docker)
Keep in touch with Life in the Peloton
Keep up to date with everything that’s going on with Life in the Peloton at my website lifeinthepeloton.com (https://lifeinthepeloton.com/)
Life in the Peloton shop
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Theme music
The theme music for Life in the Peloton was composed by Pete Shelley, who was lead singer of the punk band Buzzcocks. It was commissioned by the production company behind Channel 4’s coverage of the Tour de France in the 1980s and was used as the theme music for the nightly highlights show. Pete died in December 2018. We were given permission by Pete’s widow and his manager to continue using the music for the theme tune to Life in the Peloton. To hear more about the music, listen to the Andre Greipel episode of Life in the Peloton.
JACK GRIFFIN and the GRAFTON TO INVERELL.
The story of a man’s vision & the legacy of Australia’s biggest one day Bike Classic.
But was it much more than a race? Was it maybe the start and inspiration for some of the big names in cycling. Let’s find out when we talk to Jack’s son Ray. Listen to Jack’s Life Story - BEYOND THE RACE - as told by Ray Griffin.
Heinrich Haussler Jnr.
Tour de France
2009 Stage 13 Vittel to Colmar
Australian-born German Heinrich Haussler has claimed his maiden stage win at the Tour de France
Haussler part of an early breakaway on the 200-kilometre 13th stage from Vittel to Colmar in the hilly Vosges region left his two remaining companions with two hills to climb.
After coming over the summit of the Col du Platzerwasel in the company of Sylvain Chavanel the Cervelo team rider went off on his own opening up a gap on the Frenchman.
The peloton with the favourites, arrived over 6 minutes behind Haussler after he crossed the finish line in triumph.
Milan San Remo 2009.
The 298 km race, the first major one-day classic of the 2009 season, saw a bunch of 40 cyclists jostle for position through the winding streets of San Remo, with Haussler seemingly destined for victory after breaking away in the closing 400 meters, only for Cavendish to chase him down in dramatic fashion to win by a margin of 7mm Watch the Video to see the race unfold. It was the most dramatic finish in the races history and it was also the start of a season where Haussler held top spot of the UCI Road World Rankings for several month. The Racing Kangaroo and the Boy from Inverell became a household name around the globe.
Tour of Flanders
After Haussler’s strong showing at the Milan-San Remo, we follow the classics specialist as he tackles one of the early spring races the 2009 Tour of Flanders. Hoping to leverage his success to date, we follow his progress through the fabled race in the Belgium countryside.
Paris - Roubaix
Fighting the elements and the cobbles, Paris-Roubaix is another major goal of the 2009 season. for Heinrich Haussler In this episode you can see how he prepares and approaches the race on the fabled cobble sections. The Paris-Roubaix is also known as the Hell of the North.
Australian National Road Race Championship 2015
Heinrich Haussler (IAM Cycling) won the Australian national road championships in a sprint from Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEDGE) as Neil van der Ploeg (Avanti) won the sprint for third from a chasing group . Haussler’s infamous loss to Mark Cavendish in the Milan San Remo certainly served as motivation for Heinrich Haussler who beat one of the best young and upcoming sprinters to win the elite men’s Australian national road championship.
Haussler won the sprint despite a mechanical at the finish, when his chain came off, just as he was going to cross the line. In the last 100m where it was like edge to edge I thought, ‘no, this is not going to happen to me again. It just couldn’t. I was just trying to get everything out of my legs to get to that line first,” a jubilant 30-year-old Haussler said.
“It worked out perfectly in the last kilometre because Caleb Ewan followed an attack and I was on his wheel. It was a terrible headwind and I didn’t know if he was going to sprint early, but I kept thinking he will. When he did I just waited, waited, waited and in the last moment attacked and got around him. Haussler also proved that numbers aren’t always paramount. He only had one helper in sole IAM trade team-mate David Tanner against a field comprised of WorldTour and domestic teams that in some cases had up to 10 riders.
The major race favourites such as Cadel Evans or Richie Porte did not feature in the outcome of the gruelling event where only 57 riders, from 149 riders, finished.
Training and Home with Heino
Australian lead-out and classics specialist Heinrich Haussler likes to vary his training when getting ready for his demanding BAHRAIN MERIDA Pro Cycling Team racing schedule. Haussler has been perfecting the art of high altitude training over the last 20 years. But it is not just the 'going to high places' for training that he believes his performance benefits from, it is also choosing an entirely different bike for it, that gives him the edge when being back on the road. Riding a ONE-SIXTY during his training camps gives him extra cornering confidence on the road, and above all, it is great fun.