Daily Cycling Facts 25.02.12

Heinrich Haussler

Heinrich Haussler
(image credit: Thomas Ducroquet CC BY-SA 3.0) 

Heinrich Haussler, born on this day in 1984 in Inverell, New South Wales with joint Australian/German nationality, was raised in Australia until the age of 14 when he relocated to Germany feeling that he would be better placed in Europe to realise his professional cycling ambitions. He got his professional contract in 2005 with Gerolsteiner and immediately made his name by winning Stage 19 at the Vuelta a Espana. in 2008, he revealed that he planned to compete for Australia in the 2010 World Championships.

However, this led to complications with the 2008 Worlds and Olympics, as under UCI rules any rider who gives up a place on one national team is automatically suspended from both competitions for a period of three years; meaning he would not be able to ride for either team in the meantime. The UCI also demanded that to ride for Australia, he would have to formally surrender his German nationality, which he was unwilling to do. Finally, in 2010, he decided that he would comply with the demand, but was then unable to compete in the Worlds for Australia due to an injured knee.

Haussler has been highly successful in both Classics and stage races, winning the GP Triberg-Schwarzwald and coming 2nd in Milan – San Remo and the Ronde van Vlaanderen and 7th in Paris-Roubaix in 2009 as well as 2nd in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad a year later and also won tages 1 and 5 at the 2006 Vuelta a Murcia, Stages 2 and 4 at the 2006 Circuit Franco-Belge, Stage 1 at the 2007 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stage 13 (and the stage's Combativity Award) at the 2009 Tour de France, Stages 1 and 5 at the 2009 Volta a Algarve, 2nd overall and the Sprint and Youth Classificiations at the 2009 Tour of Qatar, Stage 2 at the Tour de Suisse and the Points Classfication at the Tour of Qatar in 2010, Stage 2 at the inaugural 2011 Tour of Beijing, the Points Classification at the 2011 Paris-Nice  and Stages 2 and 3 at the 2011 Tour of Qatar where he also won the Points Classification for a third time and came 2nd in the overall General Classification. His nickname, Barbie, came about due to his platinum blonde highlighted hair.

Susanne Juranek
(image credit: Radcross.de)

Susanne Juranek
Susanne Juranek, born in Brake, Germany on this day in 1975, moved to Goslar during childhood and began mountain biking. She would move again to Oldenburg a few years later, a much flatter part of the country with a vibrant cyclo cross scene and soon moved into that discipline which turned out to be the one in which she would make her name. She won her first major race in Hamburg in 2006 before coming 3rd in the Gieten Superprestige later in the year, then came 3rd again at Elite level in the 2007 National Championships. She won at Vechta in 2009, then won a bronze medal in the Masters classification at the 2011 World Cyclo Cross Championships in Belgium.

José Antonio González, born in San Felices de Buelna on this day in 1946, became Spanish Road Race Champion in 1970 and won Stage 7b at the Tour de France that same year. In 1971, he won Stage 11b at the Vuelta a Espana, then Stage 17b in the same race one year later along with the first of his four wins at the Vuelta al País Vasco (1972, 1975, 1977 and 1978). He won Stage 10 at the 1976 Vuelta a Espana, his last Grand Tour, then picked up a number of stage wins at smaller races before his retirement in 1980.

Other births: Maurice Schilles (France, 1888, died 1950); Edi Ziegler (Germany, 1930); Akifumi Sakamoto (Japan, 1982); Jackson Rodríguez (Venezuela, 1985); Jan Ingstrup-Mikkelsen (Denmark, 1944); William Palacios (Colombia, 1964); Karel Štark (Czechoslovakia, 1942); Grzegorz Krejner (Poland, 1969); Peter Pryor (Australia, 1930, died 2005); Thorsten Rund (Germany, 1976); Iliya Velchev (Bulgaria, 1925); Silvestro Milani (Italy, 1958); Gerhard Lauke (East Germany, 1952); Kazimierz Krzemiński (Poland, 1902); Giuseppe Petito (Italy, 1960); Sandi Papež (Yugoslavia, 1965); John Barnard (Great Britain, 1886, died 1977); Manuel Fernández (Spain, 1971).