“This fourth place feels good for the team, but tomorrow no one will remember,” the 2015 Australian National Road Race champion said.

The member of the Swiss IAM Cycling Team has been sporting the Australian champion’s yellow jersey in his Giro debut. He said the first two weeks of the 21 stage event were more difficult than he expected.

“I wanted to show the jersey, but didn’t expect the race to be at such a high level.  We are truly full-gas all day and on every stage,” Haussler said in an interview with IAM.

“This is my first Giro, but I can tell you that it is much harder than the Tour de France.”

His racing career formally began in 2005, and he has three Tours under his belt, so Haussler spoke from experience when he considered the gruelling Italian race.

Haussler rode with a bad case of gastro though several of the early stages and had two bad crashes in stage two, which set him back. 

“It took it almost a week to recover, which is normal because your body’s on the limit every day; It’s almost impossible to recover, just normally,” Haussler said.

“Then also getting sick, it’s just double-trouble.”

Haussler has though the Tour de France has a “massive boom around it”, he believes the Giro is a much more challenging race.

“I didn’t really know what to expect, but it’s definitely stressful, harder, just harder racing here in general here at the Giro.”

Haussler has had a good year. After taking the Australian National Road Race Championship, he finished fifth in the People’s Choice or Down Under Classic criterium, eighth place overall in the six-stage Tour of Qatar and claimed 10th place in the 174km one-day Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. 

Hard at it in Italy, Haussler faces three days of mountains before the final 185km stage on Sunday in Milan, showcasing the best of the Giro’s sprinters.