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Louis Meintjies has put Mzansi cycling on the world map.
Meintjies is having a great year and yesterday he took his performance to a whole new level with an impressive seventh finish at the men’s cycle road race at Fort Copacabana, registering the time of 6:10:41, while Darryl Impey finished 28th (6:28:41).
The gruelling 241.5km race is the highest finish by Team South Africa in their Olympic history.
The three podium places went to Greg van Avermaet of Belgium (6:10:05), Jakob Fuglsang of Denmark (6:10:05), and bronze to Rafal Majka of Poland (6:10:10). Meintjies might have fallen short of a podium finish but his performance was incredible and it is what SA cycling needs to improve in future Olympics Games.
Mentjies, who rides together with Tour de France teammate Impey, was over the moon with his display. Impey, one of the most well-known names in SA cycling, gave Meintjies a pat on the back for his great showing.
Impey said: “It was a challenging race and we were a bit outnumbered as other countries have about five riders and invest a lot into these kinds of events. Louis finishing in seventh place is a good result for us.”
Meintjies hopes that the team can build on this performance in future.
He said: “Impey and I worked well together. I thought that we had a really good race. It was a long, hot day. We rode a good race and for Impey to support me was great.”
The focus for the men’s road cycling shifts to Tokyo, Japan, for 2020 and the pair hope that SA can secure a podium finish there.
Impey added: “We hope the younger guys have seen what they need to do in the future to better this performance.”
