Modern Cyclist Magazine Issue 3, November 2014 | Page 20

This pupil from St John’s College, Houghton,
will ride in this year’s Momentum 947 Cycle
Challenge and then focus on his matric
examinations. At the beginning of next year,
he plans to go over to Europe again and
hopefully race for Feralpi in Italy, before
moving to the United States.

I eventually beat him, and he bought
me my first bike for that year’s 947,” he
recalled.

“Although it isn’t finalised yet,” he explained,
“I’m hopefully going to Mid-Western State
University, or MSU [Wichita Falls, Texas], and
it’s all because of my track cycling that I’m
going there.”

“I first met Michaela [Oliver] when we
went to the Junior World Track Cycling
Championships in Glasgow and she was
also on our team. But because I flew
all the way to Glasgow to race and to
show the world that I know how to ride a
bike properly, and certainly not to get a
girlfriend, I only got to know her properly
when we returned,” he stated.

While at MSU, Joshua hopes to concentrate
on the Omnium event and hopes to
compete at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio,
Brazil. According to Wikipedia, the Omnium
consists of six events including a one lap
flying start time trial, a five kilometre scratch
race, an elimination race – known as “the
devil” – a four kilometre individual pursuit, a
15 kilometre points race and a one kilometre
time trial. The winner is determined by the
places each rider achieves converted into
points and the rider with the fewest points
wins the Omnium.
“I’ll also ask to be on their road team and
I’ve already been told that should I go
there, they’ll want to see if I can get onto a
cyclocross bike too,” he said.

Cycling is so important to Joshua that he
believes that he has to have a girlfriend
that also cycles.

Michaela and Joshua have since been
“dating” for almost two years, however,
this did not slow down Joshua’s cycling
career at all. During August 2014, Joshua
was part of a seven athlete squad
that represented South Africa at the
2014 UCI Junior Track Cycling World
Championships in Seoul, South Korea.
“Going to the world champs is what
every cyclist goes for. There is nothing

But how did this career begin?
“When I was 12, I was a really big kid. In fact,
I weighed the same then as I weigh now
and naturally played rugby. Then one day
my dad said ‘enough’, and put me onto a
tandem. We started cycling once a week
and my dad has told me the first ride was a
route of six kilometres and I cried the whole
way!”

faster than being at the world champs.
And there is nothing harder. At the end
of the day, just to stand at that start line,
wearing your South African colours, is a
really spectacular feeling,” he said.
Joshua was part of the endurance
squad, which als