Taipei - According to Supersport's website Louis Meintjes moved up to second on the general classification of the Tour de Taiwan after finishing sixth on stage 4.
With help from Johann van Zyl, he was part of a successful breakaway that made it to the end. The stage was won by Zach Bell (Champion Systems) while Bernard Sulzberger (Drapac) moved into the race lead.
“For the first bit of the race I just sat in with Tsgabu [Grmay] as we are the highest two on GC for our team,” Meintjes said after the finish.
“Dennis [van Niekerk], Johann and Jacques [Janse van Rensburg] took care of us and followed all the early moves. Then with 50km to go, Johann and I launched an attack and road away with three other guys. We got quite a big gap that went out to three minutes but then with 10km to go another group caught us and it split up again. I was in the front group and we stayed away till the finish.”
Ethiopian Tsgabu Grmay is tenth overall as Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung has two riders in the top ten of the race.
“We had a plan to get either Louis or Tsgabu up the road with Dennis, Johann or Jacques,” directeur sportif, Kevin Campbell said. “It just so happened that Louis and Johann went away and managed to get a nice gap. They road as hard as they could. The chase really started in earnest after the cat 1 climb. It was raining on the descent so it was good for them in the break. Johann worked really hard to keep them away.”
Van Niekerk recovered well after his crash yesterday and is bandaged up but played a key role in supporting the team today. Three stages are left of the 2013 Tour de Taiwan.
TEAM MTN-QHUBEKA STAGE 4 RESULTS
6 Louis Meintjes (RSA) MTN Qhubeka 2:39:1043 Tsgabu Grmay (ETH) MTN Qhubeka 0:00:25
96 Dennis Van Niekerk (RSA) MTN Qhubeka 0:00:25
64 Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (RSA) MTN Qhubeka 0:00:25
79 Johann Van Zyl (RSA) MTN Qhubeka 0:01:20
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
2 Louis Meintjes (RSA) MTN Qhubeka 0:00:28
10 Tsgabu Grmay (ETH) MTN Qhubeka 0:00:47
56 Johann Van Zyl (RSA) MTN Qhubeka 0:04:35
62 Dennis Van Niekerk (RSA) MTN Qhubeka 0:06:34
77 Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (RSA) MTN Qhubeka 0:12:13