Cycling fans will be watching the return of John-Lee Augustyn to the professional peloton with curiosity. The South African makes his comeback to the sport after well-documented injury woes disrupted what looked like a promising career.

More motivated than ever, Augustyn is back in the saddle and ready to pin on the first race number for the season. He makes up part of the team’s line up for the fast growing La Tropicale Amissa Bongo race in Gabon, scheduled to get underway on 13 January.

“My training has been going really well, I’ve been feeling good on the bike as well,” Augustyn said from Italy. “I just have a bit of bad luck now with a cold that’s going around here so for the last few days I’ve been cutting the training load to try and get healthy again but I will definitely be ready for the race.”

Augustyn said he is very happy with his condition for this time of the year and is looking forward to building gradually through the coming months.

“My goal is to get back into the racing side of things and be there to support the team as much as I can. I will then take it from there on, maybe I feel good and will surprise myself."

Included in his initial program after Gabon are Le Tour de Langkawi and Giro del Trentino among others.

"My early season goals are to get back and feel comfortable in the peloton again. We will also know in these couple of days if we get into the Giro d’Italia. Right now there's nothing with too much of a high expectation on my shoulders but I will definitely give my absolute best to make the team," Augustyn concluded.