The who’s who of our pro-cyclists in Europe

As MTN-Qhubeka embarked on their European racing campaign today in the Tour de Gironde in France, it made me think. How many South African cyclists do we have riding in Europe? Unlike Australia and America, we don’t have a federation-sponsored house in Belgium where riders are based racing against the best up-and-coming youngsters in the world while gaining valuable experience. Despite that though, I’ve discovered that we have a healthy number of riders in Europe at the moment.

Robbie Hunter — He has to be first on the list as he’s achieved amazing things in Europe. Like him or not he has been at the top level of the sport for a decade now, always riding for top teams and winning every season.

John Lee Augustyn — He lives in Italy and rides for Team Sky. He hasn’t done a single race this season due to a hip resurfacing operation. I spoke to him this week and he is back training on the road already. We could see him racing as early as August. He is someone who is going achieve a lot in the world cycling.

Daryl Impey — He spent the first half of the year riding with local team MTN-Qhubeka. He’s raced in South Africa, Morocco and Iran this year and has not finished outside of the top 10 in all stage races. German Pro-Continental team NetApp noticed that and has snatched him up. It’s so good to have Daryl back in Europe where he deserves to be. He is currently riding his first race for NetApp (Bayern Rundfahrt) in the same peloton as Bradley Wiggins, Edvald Boasson Hagen and Heinrich Haussler.

Jaco Venter — What can be said of Jaco except that he will do SA proud. This boy has so much talent, don’t be surprised at a big result as early as next year. He rides for Veranda’s Willems-Accent.

Christopher Jennings and Jacques Janse van Rensburg — Here’s two youngsters who could have stayed in South Africa and made a decent living. Instead, ambition got the best of them and they’ve joined the small Spanish Continental team Burgos 2016 — Castilla y León — to follow their dreams. Don’t expect too many results from them this year, but don’t expect to not see wins next to their names in the near future.

Johan van Zyl — The SA Under-23 road and TT champion is also riding for a small Spanish team. He’s had some solid top 20 finishes so far this season. He is a man who has guts and will attack any peloton, no matter who’s in there.

David Brown — Brown has silently slipped onto German team TT Raiko Argon 18. He has always been in the results in South Africa. It will be interesting to see how he adapts to European racing.

Louis Meintjies — Nineteen-years-old and winning in Europe at will. He is riding for a club there. Don’t say I didn’t warn you about this kid.

The remaining riders I can think of off the top of my head are Jos le Roux and Jayde Julius, who has also won a race this year already.

MTN-Qhubeka as mentioned are riding in Europe during the South African winter. Here’s their schedule.

May 27-29 Tour de Gironde France.

June 5 Memorial Philippe van Coningsloo Belgium UCI1.2.

June 10-12 Delta Tour Zeeland Holland UCI2.1.

Please feel free to comment below if I have left anyone out.