SA's Meintjies targets Rio success

At just 24 years old, South African cyclist Louis Meintjies has climbed virtually every steep climb there is to climb and ascended many hills.

But he tells us that none was a finer accomplishment thus far than finishing in the top 10 in the world's most grueling cycle race, the Tour de France (Le Tour).

After the disapppointment of having to bail in his first Tour de France in 2015 riding in the colours of  MTN Qhubeka due to illness, this time Meintjes made it all the way to the landmark Champs Elysées in Paris.

This time in the colours of the Italian-based team Lampre-Merida, with whom he signed a two-year contract with in 2016, he created his own piece of local cycling history, ending in 7th place in the final classification and runner-up in the young riders’ classification behind British rider Adam Yates.

He managed to maintain  a high level of consistency through the Tour and keep up with the top contenders. Chris Froome won his second consecutive Tour de France.

Meintjies' next challenge now is riding under his own national flag as part of Team South Africa's Rio 2016 Olympic road cycling team with compatriot and 2013 Tour de France team time trial winner Daryl Impey.

The women's road cycling team will be represented by Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Time Trial) and An-li Kachelhoffer (Road Race).

After engaging what he labels the 'totally unpredictable" Olympic road race, Meintjies then heads for Spain for the Vuelta a Espana (Tour of Spain).

Aside from Meintjies' performance, the locally based Tam Dimesion Data (Qhubeka), headed up by Mark Cavendish, who later withdrew to focus on his Olympic ambition, also enjoyed a very satisfactory race.

Meintjies is encouraged by their showing and sees a great future ahead for not only South African, but African cycling as a whole.

Trevor Cramer managed to chat to Meintjies at his base in Italy ahead of his departure for Rio to link up with Team SA