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Cape Town - With 11 of 21 stages completed, South Africa’s Louis Meintjes continues to ride and gain momentum at the Vuelta a Espana.
Meintjes is 20th overall with 08:10 seconds behind overall leader Nairo Quintana but has been closing the gap slightly with every stage completed.
He will be looking to improve on his tenth place finish from last year, and riding in his third Vuelta a Espana, the South African has had a wonderful cycling season to look back on.
He finished eighth overall and came second in the young rider standings at this year's Tour de France.
The 24-year-old continued his impressive form by riding to a seventh place finish in the men’s individual road race at the Rio Olympic Games. His time of 6:10:27 was the best ever finish by a South African in this Olympic event.
The Lampre-Merida rider hasn’t had much time to rest after the Olympics and has displayed some signs of fatigue and homesickness, when he posted images on Twitter of some South African snacks, and his rider number peeling off with the caption: “Even my @lavuelta race number is getting a little tired.”
However with ten stages left, Meintjes needs to hang on and take each stage as it comes in the final Grand Tour of the 2016 cycling season.
Other South Africans participating in the Spanish tournament include Jacques Janse van Rensburg, Nicolas Dougall and Jacobus Venter. The tournament ends on September 11.
Even my @lavuelta race number is getting a little tired. pic.twitter.com/GmS914Grug
— Louis (@LouisMeintjes) August 29, 2016
Nice surprise from one of my @lampre_merida mechanics. . . ???? pic.twitter.com/S5lTjliYRC
— Louis (@LouisMeintjes) August 31, 2016
Getting spoiled this @lavuelta . . Making me miss ???? pic.twitter.com/YpMN9M0pYZ
— Louis (@LouisMeintjes) September 1, 2016
