John-Lee Augustyn

John-Lee Augustyn
	Augustyn at the 2008 Tour de France
Personal information
Full name	John-Lee Augustyn
Born	10 August 1986 (age 37); Kimberley, South Africa
Team information
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Climber
Professional teams
2005–2006	Team Konica Minolta
2007–2009	Barloworld
2010–2011	Team Sky
2012	Utensilnord–Named
2014	MTN–Qhubeka

John-Lee Augustyn (born 10 August 1986) is a South African former professional road bicycle racer.^[1] His former teams include Team Sky, Barloworld and MTN–Qhubeka. Following a hip resurfacing operation in 2011, he moved to the UCI Professional Continental team Utensilnord–Named,^[2] but continued to suffer problems, indicating the hip implant was not coping with the rigours of professional racing. Following medical advice announced in May 2012 that he was taking an indefinite break from professional cycling,^[3] Augustyn returned to the professional peloton in 2014 with the MTN–Qhubeka team.^[1]

Tour de France 2008[edit]

During Stage 16 of the 2008 Tour in his second professional year, John-Lee crested Cime de la Bonette in first place before shortly and spectacularly overshooting a hairpin bend on the descent. He was thrown from his bike, sliding 30 metres down the shale mountainside before recovering to complete the stage.^[4]

Retirement[edit]

Following a comeback with the newly formed MTN–Qhubeka, Augustyn was forced to retire from professional cycling in May 2014 due to a persistent hip problem which originated in a crash at the 2007 Volta a Portugal, which caused avascular necrosis of the femoral head.^[5] On his retirement John-Lee vowed to give something back to the sport that he loved. Quickly gaining his UCI coaching acrreditions he was approached by a number of teams to help assist with coaching and mentoring younger neo pros. He spent the summer of 2015 in Europe working at some of the biggest races on the calendar. He now lives on Lago d'Iseo in Italy with his wife. He is often seen riding his [1] bike, a brand he has been an ambassador for since 2015 for along with SAKO7 socks and cycling apparel.