Jake Gyllenhaal is the lure for many of the participant’s at SoulCycle’s spinning classes.

The hottest ticket in town is an uncomfortable seat, front and center, at the 10:30 a.m. SoulCycle class at Union Square, where dreamy Jake Gyllenhaal regularly sweats his way through workouts.

His cycling schedule — and favorite instructor — are no longer a secret, and devotees of the spin studio’s odd mix of aggro instructors and daintily lit candles are doing everything they can to snag a spot next to Gyllenhaal and his facial scruff.

“I just go to SoulCycle for Jake,” said Leslie, a 35-year-old yoga instructor, after being disappointed that she’d missed a class with Gyllenhaal the day before. (Leslie declined to give her last name for fear of being outed as a Gyllenhaal lover.)

“Everyone knows which classes he goes to. Since they’re so hard to get into, I’ve even set up an alarm on my phone so it reminds me on Monday that I have to go online to be in that class.” Leslie says she pre-books the popular time slot to ensure she never missed another Gyllenhaal sighting again.

Hilary Sheinbaum, who started going to SoulCycle after the first wave of Gyllenhaal sightings at the studio late last year, admits that she tries to secure a bike at his favorite classes whenever she can. “Having him there, I’m on my best workout behavior,” says Sheinbaum, 25. “Having him as eye candy does not hurt.”

Celebrity sightings are a dime a dozen in New York gyms, but how often do you get to spend 45 whole minutes at arm’s length from one of the Hollywood’s hottest hunks, pumping his gorgeous hamstrings, flexing his muscles, and wearing bicep-clinging T-shirts?

As ladies like Leslie and Sheinbaum know, the 32-year-old actor regularly sits in the front row of instructor Jolie Walsh’s 10:30 a.m. class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and tends to pop in to her 11:45 a.m. Saturday sessions. And it’s not like he’s trying to be discreet.

“He’s ‘taught’ the class from the instructor’s bike in the past, a job they don’t just give to some random weekend warrior,” says Lizzy, 31, who was lucky enough to sit directly behind him in a recent class. (Lizzy declined to use her last name since she’s a SoulCycle regular and doesn’t want to be banned from the bikes.) “They will pull regulars and put them up there on occasion, but usually it’s just the instructor.”

Before the start of class, two staff members from the studio flutter around the room, helping first-timers adjust their bikes. But when Gyllenhaal’s in the class, Lizzy says, “there were at least 5, and they parked themselves in front of the studio, which happened to be right in front of his bike. I’m not sure if they actually thought they were going to be plucked by Gyllenhaal from SoulCycle obscurity while wearing an oversized T-shirt, but I admired their gumption.”

Kym Perfetto, a SoulCycle instructor at several locations, was one of the first people to notice him in her Union Square class late last year. “When he first started coming to SoulCycle,” she says, “He came to my class at 10:30 and it wasn’t filled out at all. The next week, the very next week, 10:30 was sold out, and it’s been sold out [ever since].”

“Did you see him?,” whispered one sweaty rider after riding in one of Gyllenhaal’s classes. Smiling girls gathered in corners of the SoulCycle Union Square studio’s co-ed locker room at 10:30 a.m. one recent Thursday morning, trading elated reactions to working out so close to the hunky star. The energy at this particular studio reaches hypertense levels once the first cycler spots “Jake.” Suddenly, everyone’s necks are craned and they have ballerina posture. Gyllenhaal is rumored to have met his current girlfriend, Sports Illustrated model Emily DiDonato, in a SoulCycle class, after all.

Even the 9:30 a.m. class on Thursday with Jolie is next to impossible to reserve, since riders know if they linger on their bikes long enough post-class, “stretching,” or bombarding Jolie with very important questions about their progress, backaches,or padded bike shorts, their chances of a Gyllenhaal sighting increase.

Hoping for that kind of chance encounter, we signed up for Jolie’s usually sold-out 9:30 a.m. class, hoping to get a taste of the frantic rush to spot Gyllenhaal immediately afterwards.

It was our lucky day. We walked in to the studio and there he was, in a black muscle tee, with a towel over his shoulder, getting ready to spin like a maniac. With us.

Girls hoping to lure Gyllenhaal into their sweaty arms during class will be disappointed to hear that Gyllenhaal’s blue-eyed girlfriend Emily was along for the ride as well.

So what’s so special about cycling with Gyllenhaal? That becomes clear once the music starts and Jolie starts thrusting her upper body all over the place. Gyllenhaal, who sat in the front row facing Jolie’s podium, is a serious SoulCycler. With his hair pulled into a topknot and a grizzly six-o’clock shadow gradually getting soaked with sweat, he bopped from right to left, head down, performing swift push-ups and shoulder thrusts to rapid-fire music.

And for some mysterious reason, before the 5-minute cooldown that ends class, he switched from his front-row seat to a less prominent spot on the side. True to form, Gyllenhaal hung around after class to talk to Jolie, sitting his muscular behind on her podium and lounging on one arm.

For professional reasons, obviously, we realized we were the only other person in the room besides the celebrity hunk and his SoulCycle soulmate. We walked right over to Jolie to ask an important question that couldn’t wait.

“So, do you post your playlist online?” No, Jolie said, explaining that she wasn’t allowed to anymore. But if we wanted it, we could simply email her. We could smell Gyllenhaal’s shampoo.

“Um, well, what was that one song? ‘King of Shadows,’ I think?”

Jolie said it was actually called “The Brightest Lights” and smiled, effectively ending our make-believe conversation. But that’s when the great sweaty man spoke.

“King Charles,” said Gyllenhaal, looking us in the eyes.

And with that, the $34 class paid for itself.

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