John-Lee soaks up the heat
From the Arc de Triomphe to the Great Wall of China, the Tour de France to the Olympics, John Lee Augustyn on Saturday took another leap to becoming South Africa's new cycling superstar on the hills outside Beijing.
Augustyn, who will celebrate his 22nd birthday on Sunday, finished 27th in the 245km Olympic road race, just two minutes and 28 seconds behind the gold medal winner, Samuel Sanchez of Spain.
Italy's David Rebellin took silver while Fabian Cancellara, the Swiss time trial world champion, won bronze.
Augustyn was the youngest rider to finish this year's Tour de France with Barloworld, ending the three weeks in the top 50. Top 30 in the Olympics, said South African team manager Tony Harding, was an incredible feat.
"I can say without any hint of exaggeration that the way John-Lee rode today was one of the great performances by a South African," said Harding.
"David George's silver at the 2006 Commonwealth Games was a massive result, but for a guy like John-Lee, who is just 22, to ride like that against the best in the world is inspiring and shows what talent he has.
"This is probably the last Olympics for Robbie Hunter and David George. John-Lee is the future and he's already riding like a star."
Augustyn rode a canny race yesterday, following the wheels of the Spanish and Italian riders as they hauled in the early breaks.
Barloworld teammate Hunter dropped out after two of the seven laps of the 23,8 km circuit in the shadow of the famous Juyongguan section of the Great Wall. George dropped off the main group just before the last lap, but Augustyn held on until, with 21km left, his young body could give no more in the heavy heat.
"It slowly got harder and harder," said Augustyn. "This humidity makes your body tired more quickly and with two laps to go I got this feeling ... and I know when I get that feeling everything is going to go backwards.
"I tried to do everything to get my body back to normal and on the last lap I was going quite well, but when I tried to follow the final break, I started cramping everywhere and I couldn't pedal. I just went backwards."
A similar fate awaited his Austrian Barloworld teammate, Christiaan Pfaanberger, who launched a late attack on the second-last lap and built up a 30-second gap.
That was whittled to 15 seconds as the bell sounded for the final circuit, before he was caught and passed by a group containing the winner of the under-25 rider competition, Andy Schleck, the Danish rider who won the white jersey in the Tour.
Augustyn has his eye on taking the white jersey at the Tour in the future.
"The Tour helped a lot with training and preparation. You need a lot more training and preparation in this heat. Actually, it's not the heat so much as the humidity. That's a killer.
"It's been a really great year for me. It's every rider's dream to do that at this age. I can only learn from everything I've done. I'm at my best form ever,
"I feel strong. I'm a bit tired, and am looking forward to a bit of rest. I think, actually, I know I can get stronger year after year."
Augustyn will head to South Africa in the next few days, where he will spend two weeks renewing his visa.
He has not been home since the beginning of the year and seemed a little apprehensive at the suggestion he was now a household name, and not only for his crash off the side of a mountain in the Tour de France.
His star is firmly on the rise.