A Day With: South African cyclist Louis Meintjes

Matt Jones - Editor 09:46 20/01/2017
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Meintjes will represent the new team from Abu Dhabi.

    The 2016 season was a breakout one for Louis Meintjes, in which he finally joined the elite.

    The 24-year-old South African finished eighth overall at the Tour de France, 6mins 58secs off winner Chris Froome, and took second in the young rider classification behind another Brit, Adam Yates. He followed that up with seventh place in the men’s road race at the Olympics, just 22 seconds adrift of gold medalist Greg Van Avermaet.

    Now that he’s got a seat at cycling’s top table he’s determined not just to stay there, but compete and beat the best. Meintjes was named as a rider for Team UAE Abu Dhabi a few weeks ago and is currently racing in the season-opening Tour Down Under.

    Sport360 caught up with him in the capital.

    How excited are you about the new season ahead?

    It’s been a crazy few months with a lot of uncertainty but it’s exciting now. It’s finally now time to sit down with some solid goals and start working towards something.

    How was the off-season?

    It was good, pretty long, back in South Africa for most of the time. The main goal was to spend time with family and catch up with friends, just relax.

    And training too, of course?

    Yeah. Training was pretty good. I’m not going to be flying for the first few months but the main goal is to be ready for the Tour de France again and I think, for that, everything is on track.

    What are you main aims for the season?

    If I can improve on the season I’ve had, I will be super happy. Having a good Tour de France again will be amazing. As a team as well, if we can be part of something successful, that will also be very good.

    It was a brilliant season for you in 2016. How do you reflect on it?

    If I knew at the start of last season what results I would get, I would have taken it. It’s given me a lot of confidence because up until the start of last season it had been a lot of work just trying to get up to that front group.

    Finally, last year, I have been able to get there, and now it’s the plan to get out of that front group and hopefully be ahead of them, now that I’m up there among the elite names.

    You always look at the races and wonder if you have that natural ability to do it and you can never be 100 per cent certain until you do it. I feel I’ve been pretty close to there and now I feel it’s not an unrealistic step to finish in front of them.

    That’s definitely the main focus and my attitude this season, not just to stay there.

    So will the Grand Tours be the races you focus on more this season?

    Yeah, I think so. It’s one of my strengths. I can be consistent over a few weeks. It will be my focus to do that and keep trying to improve on it.

    What’s the big dream?

    To win the Tour de France. It’s the biggest race. Also the World Championships is always a special race so if it’s a good circuit and the weather’s good, then I can maybe try and aim for that too.

    After Lampre-Merida’s demise last season, were there fears for the future and whether you’d get a ride anywhere this season?

    There always is but there’s always so many unpredictable things in cycling. There’s only one thing you can control, so you switch off and worry about the thing you can control. At the end of the day, if you make sure you ride your bike well everything will turn out fine.

    Lampre were a top team but always a bit off the pace when it came to trophies. Do you look at the rest of the team now and think ‘we can do well this season’ or in the future?

    Yeah, we definitely have some good riders. We don’t have as many big riders as some of the other teams, but it’s professional cycling, it’s a sport. It’s a level playing field and you try to make the best out of it. You don’t always have to be the best to win it, you just have to play the game the best.

    I have my team and team-mates and we’re going out there and playing this game in order to come out as well as we possibly can.

    With the new team being backed by the UAE, how big will you and the team be looking to make an impact on home soil and the Abu Dhabi Tour and Dubai Tour?

    It will definitely be the aim of some of the riders. I don’t think it’s going to be the number one aim for me, but we’re going to come here with a strong team and be highly motivated. If we have local support, I think that will be helpful.

    Having grown up in a rugby and cricket-mad country like South Africa, how did you end up cycling?

    I never really excelled in any of the other sports and when I tried cycling I was good at it, so it was nice. And it was about the challenge, too. Everyone thought it was impossible and I thought I’d give it a bash and try and do something worth remembering. That was a big part of turning professional, for me.

    Who were your cycling heroes when you were starting out?

    When I’d just started out, Robbie Hunter had just won his first stage (at the Tour de France), so that played a role. Seeing guys like Daryl Impey and John-Lee Augustyn all turning pro and starting at the same place as me, doing the local races. They were proving it’s not impossible if you do the hard work.

    That really helped having them paving the way. Chris Froome too, as he also spent quite a bit of his high school career in South Africa doing local races. If he can come from his background and go all the way to where he is, it inspires you. It was also perfect timing because they were constantly motivating me. They’d do it year after year.

    Recommended