I don’t remember my 3rd grade at school at all. I had so many traumatic experiences I think my brain just blanked it out. My mother lost her job and started abusing alcohol. She’d bring different guys around who’d abuse her. Child services eventually fetched me and took me to my grandmother. I didn’t want to leave my mother even though my life wasn’t good.
When I moved to my grandparents, I never went to school except for Fridays. My grandmother would leave tuck-shop money for me at the school’s office on a Friday so I had to go to school to collect it. After that, life became more stable with my grandparents. They were well off and did their best for me.
I played golf for an American team in Scotland when I was 14-years-old. I got to know my father a little bit before he died and he introduced me to the sport. After he died, I always used his caddy when I played. It was like my emotional connection to my dad.
Tiger Woods had a tournament at St Andrews when I was there. I was so excited and went to watch him. On the first hole, he literally hit the ball over my head and it landed in the burn behind me. I jumped into the water to retrieve the ball and kept it. I made headlines and was in the newspaper the next day. The ball had his name on it. I still have it at home to this day.
Because of my upbringing, I don’t think I brushed my teeth until I was 10 years old. That caused many auto-immune problems early on in my cycling career.
Playing on my own everyday hitting 500 golf balls became very boring. I lost all enjoyment. Like any farm boy, I had a mountain bike so I started doing adventure racing. That was a lot more stimulating.
Because of my upbringing, I don’t think I brushed my teeth until I was 10 years old. That caused many auto-immune problems early on in my cycling career. I had Epstein–Barr virus, Coxsackievirus, etc – because of my bad living conditions as a child.
In 2014, I had an upper respiratory infection. I kept getting sick and they could not figure out what was wrong. I missed my flight to the Tour of Qinghai Lake which was a big target for me. I was sick again and my team wasn’t very happy because it was a common occurrence. I was sitting at home completely despondent. Eventually, they figured out it was Candida and was so easy to cure in the end.
I thought to myself, ‘If I could still get such good results despite all the health problems, what could I do if I was healthy?’
I was totally motivated and ready to go and then I broke my hip at the beginning of the next season in the Tour of Gabon.
The doctor told me I could not walk for three months but I started riding my bike after 6 weeks. My fiancé is a physiotherapist and did a lot of work with me. We did a range of movements in the legs because she understood what I was trying to achieve as a professional cyclist. I just wanted to get back on the bike so she gave me cycling specific workouts to help my rehab.
Putting pressure on my leg was a problem. I was on crutches but my fiancé and I figured out how I could get onto the bike without hurting my leg. So I was back to riding on the road and more determined than ever.
Four months later, I theoretically won my first race. Nicholas Dlamini and I were away in a race on the way to battle it out for the win. In the final left-hander, we were meant to go onto the usual oncoming traffic side of the road. We were unaware of that and started sprinting on the wrong side of the barriers. I won but we were disqualified because we missed the finishing shoot, instead we sprinted parallel to it. Winning my first race back would have been amazing.
The connection to Katusha Alpecin came about thanks to the sports director I was racing for in Spain last year. I won 16 races in 4 months. One of them was Vuelta Ciclista Leon. I was leading the race by one second and survived the toughest climb which was 5.5km’s long at 10 – 12%.
He was impressed by that ride and called his friend, the team manager at Katusha, José Azevedo and told him about him. I didn’t know about the phone call at the time but it was the call that has changed my life. For the first time, I have an opportunity to just focus on riding my bike in an amazing support structure. I’m ready to grab the opportunity with both hands.
Last modified: Jan 20, 2020
