MARK ETHERIDGE: How cycling ace Wikus Myburgh climbed a steep hill to aim for Olympics

Most people, let alone sports persona, experience various cycles of change in their lives, but SA’s Wikus Myburgh has consciously recycled his life.

That is because he has gone through extreme highs and lows, all before the age of 30.

The top-ranked tennis player at Affies, Pretoria, Myburgh went on to play for Seminole State College, in Oklahoma, US, on a scholarship, but says it wasn’t the life he was looking for. After returning to SA, he coached for 18 months before giving it a go on the global pro tennis circuit until the end of 2016.

“I got to about No 1,400 in the world and when I came back I started a tennis academy at St Mary’s Diocesan School for Girls in Pretoria,” Myburgh said.

Life was good for Myburgh, too good in fact.

“I started making a lot of money from coaching, but looking back, I had no character and the sudden wealth corrupted me. I bought a car, a house, a motorbike, fell in with the wrong girlfriend and suddenly lost everything I cared for.

“The house went, the car went, the motorbike went, even my dog went. I was ready to commit suicide.”

So what did Myburgh do? He opted for a different kind of service — went back to his religious roots and started from the ground up.

“I just knew that this was what I had to do, so in 2018 I fully surrendered to Christ and took 12-13 months to get my mind right.”

Come 2020 and lockdown and Myburgh was finding his feet again, with the guidance of his deep faith and lots of scripture-reading but sport also played a big part in his revival.

“I felt God wanted me to get back into sport, so I looked at a whole lot of options and then suddenly felt drawn to cycling and [felt] at peace with that.”

So he started out on the road bike circuit and soon picked up two top-20 spots on the local road circuit on the same weekend. “I could see that especially my sprinting ability was improving and if your sprinting is good, the track is the place for you.”

Standing 1.88m tall, tipping the scales at 96kg and able to push out a maximum of 2,500 watts on the watt-bike proves that he’s a born sprinter. That journey took him to the concrete track of Hector Norris Park in the south of Johannesburg.

“I had my first lesson in January last year. It was crazy getting used to a fixed-gear bike, and of course I fell on the first day, but I got better so quickly.

“I won an event at the SA Championships three months later which was amazing and it was all coming naturally to me. I went to Europe and got podiums in UCI races in Germany and Denmark.”

But it got still better. “I qualified for the World Champs this year and just getting to Glasgow, Scotland, was a blessing. I ended up being 22nd in the world in the 1km time trial event.”

It sure seems that the world is his oyster these days. “I want to know why I’m on earth and what my role is here, so that I can teach the next generation after me. I want to build a platform for them, something that is increasingly scarce in the world these days.”

Multiple national track champion Nolan Hoffman was Myburgh’s manager at the World Champs and realises the latter’s potential.

“Wikus is built like a horse. When it comes to muscular makeup, size and build, all the boxes are ticked,” said Hoffman who has been to at least four track world championships.

Get overseas

“Off the bike, he’s an amazingly strong character, almost unbreakable in fact.

“He just lacks self-confidence when he’s on the bike but that’s purely down to experience, or lack of it. What he needs to do now is race as much as he can. He needs to get overseas and race at every opportunity to realise his full potential.”

Meanwhile, Myburgh, who turned 30 earlier this month, is changing his life around day by day.

“I’m grateful to a lot of people. My dad helped where he could as I paid all my debt back. I sold an off-road bike. I bought blueberries wholesale from a farm and sold them on. I delivered pizza. There were so many people who helped me.”

“I had a fundraising drive and one guy just gave me a bike worth R40,000-R50,000. Another guy bought me a Pinarello bike worth R160,000 which I eventually sold and [I] was able to pay my car off.

“Now I’m very lucky to have a sponsor who truly believes in me and wants to change the world. His name is Allen McDonogh of Strategic Insurance Systems. He is able to give me a monthly salary so that in the grander scheme of things I can help others one day.”

Another key factor in Team Myburgh is Sandra Mcilwrath, owner of In Motion studio in Riviera Pretoria.

Gave academy

“She’s also helping make all of this possible. I train in her studio three-four times a week. I eat there, she manages me and my admin around the cycling.”

Gone are the tennis academy days. “I gave the academy over to a girl who was working for me and she’s doing very well with it.”

And what does the next cycle of life hold for the Pretoria powerhouse? “I really want to try to get to Paris for next year’s Olympics. I know it’s a long shot but I truly believe that through God anything is possible.

“I’m also aiming for next year’s world championships. This year is all about development and getting stronger and faster in all aspects of life.

“Even if I don’t make next year’s Olympics my major goal will come in 2026 when I want to go to the Commonwealth Games. I want to dominate world track cycling. I feel I’m physically born for sprinting — I just need to develop it.”

In Myburgh’s case the title of the 2006 SA film Faith Like Potatoes could be changed to Faith like Pedalling Power.