Team MTN-Qhubeka’s Louis Meintjes finished just outside the top 10 on stage 15 of La Vuelta a España to climb back into 10th place overall.
Meintjes finished 41 seconds behind stage winner Joaquim Rodriguez of Katusha on the slopes of Alto de Sotres.
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His teammate Natnael Berhane impressed as he got himself into the major break of the day.
The eight-rider lead bunch kept a two-minute advantage for most of the day, as Movistar drove the chasing peloton.
They forged a maximum four-minute lead but it was not enough as Astana drove hard to close the gap on the 11.7km climb.
Berhane worked hard to stay ahead of the bunch but was the second last rider to be reeled in with 6km to go.
Rafal Majka of Tinkoff-Saxo took the runner-up spot on the stage with Katusha’s Daniel Moreno rounding out the podium.
