John Lee Augustyn, the former Barloworld and Sky Procycling rider, has finally overcome serious health problems that forced him to put his career on hold, to make his comeback to professional cycling in the outfit of African Pro Continental Team MTN-Qhubeka.

27-year old South African experienced two serious crashed in relatively short period of time: in the 10th stage of the 2007 Volta a Portugal and during 2008 tour de France. Although on both occasions Augustyn recovered and returned to racing, he felt unable to make any further improvement.

“I saw Chris Froome going at the top at the Tour de France. It wasn’t easy,” Augustyn told VeloNews.

“Mentally it was hard, I was struggling because I could not ride at the same level as before. I had to stop to avoid hating cycling.”

Not earlier than at Sky, team doctors discovered that badly healed hip injury from 2007 caused part of the bone to deteriorate, what was the reason of cyclist’s inability to perform on the level he previously got used to. Augustyn underwent the hip surgery in 2011 and quickly returned to racing in the second division outfit Utensilnord-Named for 2012. Unfortunately, South African was still feeling the discomfort connected with recently operated injury, what finally forced him to to quit and take a break. He said that it was “heartbreaking” but that he needed it both mentally and physically.

During the time South African was forced to spend off the bike, Augustyn opened and operated Augustyn Brothers bike shop together with his brother in Port Elizabeth. As the time passed by, former Sky Procycling rider was slowly recovering and regaining strength as well as he rediscovered his affection for cycling, mainly thanks to mountain biking and strength training he had underwent.

“I started talking to [MTN General Manager] Doug Ryder and began getting excited about returning,” Augustyn said.

“I was going better and better on my mountain bike and tests in Switzerland showed that I was strong enough to return.”

As soon as he felt ready to return to professional cycling, Augustyn quited on running his small business, sold the bike shop and fully concentrated on training. South African cyclist signed a one year contract with Pro Continental MTN-Qhubeka and looks forward to his return in 2014.  His season should kick-off with Gabon’s Tropicale Amissa Bongo in January, followed by Malaysia’s Tour of Langkawi in February before returning to cycling’s heartland in Europe.

“I’ve done very little road races, I did a few local ones in Port Elizabeth. I’ve done mountain bike races, which are harder than most bike races,” he said.

“MTN is supporting me well, though. The team is giving me proper training and proper racing. I’ll be looked after on the bike.”

Augustyn optimistically looks into the future as a rider of the best African team of international peloton, while he remains reluctant in talking about the threat of another injury, that would likely force him to quit from professional cycling for good. If he does fall again, he risks shattering part of his hip. He said that’s the case for many professional cyclists riding around with metal pins or plates in their bodies.

“MTN, a real African team, inspires me. Team Barloworld had a South African sponsor [and] South African cyclists, but this is a true African team with riders from [all] over Africa. It motivates me,” Augustyn said.

“I want to return to proper racing. Regain my confidence and get back in a grand tour.”