Three South African riders will start the 2016 Vuelta a España on Saturday. Louis Meintjes, Jaco Venter and Jacques JanseVan Rensburg are the Rainbow Nation’s representatives in Spain, which could technically amount to five if you count Nick Dougall and Chris Froome, who represent Australia and Great Britain respectively. Call it national pride if you like but we South Africans do like to call naturalized locals our own. But that is a separate discussion, possibly better hosted by a political panel instead of sports blog.
South Africans at the Vuelta a España, something which didn’t come into being until 1999 with Robert Hunter and David George trailblazing their way to being our country’s first modern-day Grand Tour starters. Hunter won a stage and the sprints jersey, a sensational debut in a Vuelta probably best remembered for Jan Ullrich’s surprise overall victory. The late Alan Van Heerden had been SA’s only three-week representative way back in 1979, winning a stage of the Giro d’Italia of that year. The sheer notion of our riders in a Grand Tour had long been a pipe dream; many had tried and so many had failed at “making it” in deepest, darkest Europe. That’s all different now, what with the likes of Team Dimension Data and Louis Meintjes and Daryl Impey being fully-fledged and major players in the game of top-level international cycling.
While stage wins, classifications jerseys and great GC results are one thing, what about illness, injury and shattered dreams? I’m sure all of the aforementioned riders can relate to these – and other – hard luck notions and kudos to them for rising above the quagmire and putting SA cycling on the international map. Yet with every success story are legions of others, riders that have come and gone for a host reasons, circumstances and sheer bad luck.
I recently came across this video, which reminded me about a long-forgotten South African cycling talent. It’s not that long ago that John-Lee Augustyn was tipped as the next big thing. Part of the emerging Barloworld class of 2007-2009, Augustyn quite literally had it all ahead of him in his early twenties. An innate climbing talent, friend and mentor Robert Hunter once waxed lyrical about his protégé’s immense potential on national television, going on to add that Augustyn’s adaptability to the European peloton’s uphill velocity boded well for the future. Team SKY certainly thought so, signing him up along with Chris Froome for 2010. And yet with all this raw talent, savvy and potential, Augustyn is best remembered for his exploits rather than his results.
I remember meeting the soft-spoken John-Lee Augustyn three years ago at the Cape Pioneer Trek. After being released by SKY in 2011 and riding for a small Italian squad in 2012, the man from Port Elizabeth was using this mountain bike stage race as part of his preparation to comeback with Africa’s Team the following season. Speaking to him, I could sense a steely determination to return to the peloton, which indicated unfinished business but, above all, sheer passion for the sport. We chatted about his motivations and how his signing with the then MTN-Qhubeka came about as well as his experience of falling violently ill in Vuelta a España 2010.
Watching Augustyn talk about his life and times the other day brought back our brief 2013 encounter so vividly. I remember thinking how was it that such a quiet and humble guy could be such a “killer” on a bike. One has to have some sort driving force to succeed in sport as hard as pro cycling and I wondered what motivated him, what inspired such will to succeed and to come back from the proverbial wilderness. Augustyn’s memoirs would make a fascinating read as would hundreds of other “nearly men”. There are quite literally thousands of guys like him who have had to shelve their two-wheeled dreams and re-focus their lives elsewhere. Hard indeed and Augustyn is one of at least three South African Vuelta finishers who have had to give up cycling for differing reasons.
As he talks throughout the twenty-or-so minutes one is struck by John-Lee Augustyn’s clear passion for the sport. Now living and working in Italy, he still rides for the love and is channeling his energy into his own cycling apparel business. And while this can perhaps never completely fill the void and temper the “what ifs,” cycling will always be in his blood.
Per l'amore del ciclismo.
