Team MTN-Qhubeka’s Louis Meintjes excelled on the 16th stage of the Vuelta a Espana which was the defining stage in terms of the General Classification.
Team MTN-Qhubeka. Photo: Supplied
The course’s severity ensured that it was a very select group of favourites that arrived at the base of the last 16km climb to Lagos de Somiedo.
Among the big names in the GC group, Team MTN-Qhubeka had two representatives in the form of 22-year-old Meintjes and Sergio Pardilla.
It was not all plain sailing to get to this point though and it was a great team effort that ensured the team’s two climbers could be in contention for the finale.
A 13 rider break formed at the summit of the first cat one but with the race leader Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) clearly having his sights set on a stage win, the pace remained high throughout the race.
Gerald Ciolek, Kristian Sbaragli, Jaco Venter and Jay Thomson did some sterling work over the first few climbs, ensuring the team’s climbers did the least amount of work possible.
At the last climb’s summit it was Contador who would race to victory with Chris Froome (Team Sky) in second and Alessandro de Marchi (Cannondale) third.
Most impressive though was that Meintjes managed to hang in there with the big names to end up 16th on the stage, just 2’56” down on Contador after more than 4500m of climbing.
“I am very pleased with my result, obviously as a rider you always think how you could have maybe finished higher up but it was a good day,” said Meintjes.
