Having first hit the international cycling scene in 2009, Fountainebleau’s Jean Spies went on to have a cycling career of note. Filled with challenges due to health and most recently, crime, Spies has bounced back from every difficulty, to keep himself on track to be one of the best.
Starting in 2009, he headed to the United Kingdom to form part of the Ingear Cycling Development Squad. There he would be trained to be able to keep up with the best in the world. After a year of hard work and discipline Spies competed in his first global competition. He explained, “In 2010 I went to China to compete in the World Cup as an endurance rider.” In the very same year, he scored his first professional contract.
Having travelled to some of the world’s most amazing countries, due to his hectic training schedule he hasn’t been able to take in all the scenes on offer. Spies expressed, “As much as we try and get out to sightsee, it is not what most people believe, there is no such thing as “time off” or exploring time. We get to our destination, continue training a mountain load of hours, get to the event, set up for the event, race the event, pack up and head to the next destination and the cycle continues.”
2019 was definitely a year ups and downs. Spies expressed, “2019 was one of my toughest years on and off the bike. Physically, emotionally and spiritually, in every way shape and form. It has taken me from the highs of being ranked 2nd in the world to lying on a hospital bed having emergency surgery.” He added that these experiences shaped him in ways he would never have thought were possible.
In addition to the challenges is the challenge of getting your body and performance to the next level. Spies stated that in order to keep up with the world’s best he would need to train just like them. He explained, “On average I train six hours a day, six days a week. I spend on average nine hours a week in the gym and the rest of the time on the track, with a few hours on the road.”
Spies now has his sights on the Olympic Games which will be hosted in Tokyo this year. The focus to make it to the games didn’t just start but it’s been ongoing for years. Spies said, “The lifestyle I have followed over the last three years in order to make my Olympic dream a reality has been far from smooth sailing and I guess I have never really made it public until now.”
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