Louis Meintjes GEARED FOR SUCCESS
Louis Meintjes proved by winning a silver medal at the under-23 road race of the UCI World Championship in Florence, Italy, that history has a way of repeating itself.
GEARED FOR
SUCCESS:
Louis Meintjes It is the second time in 120 years that L. Meintjes has done South Africa proud at a cycling world championship. The first was in 1893 when Lawrence Meintjes travelled to Chicago where he took the 100 km world title in August and set a record time for the 50 miles (81.5 km).
In doing so Louis Meintjes became South Africa’s first world champion in any sport.  Words by: Wilhelm de Swardt; Photos by: MTN-Qhubeka
70
Game On Magazine, November/December: Issue 02, 2013
ATHLETE PROFiLE FEATURE: ROAD CYCLING
It cannot officially be confirmed but Lappe Laubscher, a former cycling journalist at Rapport and sport historian, reckons that the two Meintjes might just be related. Winning that silver medal was really special for Meintjes. “It’s just a crazy emotion. You don’t know if you should cry or jump up and down. But I am extremely happy with my silver medal,” Meintjes said afterwards. He has just cause to be exited. It’s only the third time since 1927 that any South African male rider has managed to win a medal at the UCI Elite Road Championship. In 2001 in Lisbon James Perry won a bronze medal in the under-23 time trial.
2013 has actually been a sort of ‘coming of age’ year for South African road cycling because Daryl Impey and his Orica/GreenEdge teammates won a silver medal in the team time trial at the same World Championship. Impey also made history during the Tour de France by becoming the first rider from Africa to wear the coveted yellow jersey. The only other time a South African cyclist won a medal at the UCI championship was in 2006 when Cherise Stander took silver in the junior race.
How did the race play out? “My two South African team mates controlled the first part of the race which afforded me the luxury to save my energy for the last two laps,” Meintjes said. “I followed a move on the second last lap but we never got much distance from the bunch, although I could feel I was one of the stronger riders on the day,” he continued. “I then attacked on the last lap and stayed away from the bunch. I just couldn’t manage to catch one rider from an earlier breakaway. But I could feel I was going to stay away or maybe even catch the leader and maybe even sprint for gold.”
Game On Magazine, November/December: Issue 02, 2013
71
Louis Meintjes GEARED FOR SUCCESS
On cyclingnews.com it was reported that Matej Mohoric came painfully close to being caught by Meintjes. Unfortunately the summit of the 600 m ascent came too soon for Meintjes to close the gap. Mohoric’s managed with his ultra-fast handling skills on the descent to widen the gap again. With 400 m of the 172.3 km course left to race, the penny dropped with Mohoric that barring divine intervention with a capital “D”, the victory was in the bag, and he slowed slightly to allow himself to savour the moment. After raising his arm skywards one last time, the Slovenian crossed the line with three seconds on Meintjes, whilst Norway’s Sonder Enger led in the tiny front bunch of 17 chasers 13 s later for bronze. Barry Austin, former Cycling South Africa team manager, becomes quite excited when asked about Meintjes’s cycling abilities. “There is no doubt that Louis is currently one of South Africa’s brightest young cycling prospects”, Austin enthuses. “What makes me excited is his attitude towards cycling. He really wants to become one of the world’s best and he knows that to achieve this, he will have to make big sacrifices. Louis is prepared to do just that.”
“The first time he was based in Belgium he definitely did not have an easy time as far as their living conditions were concerned,” Austin continues. “Many youngsters would have decided there and then that trying to make it in international cycling was not for them and would simply have quit. But not Louis. He could not wait to go back to Europe, even knowing that it will be hard on him emotionally as well as physically. This is the stuff of which true champions are made.”
As to what makes Meintjes a good cyclist, Austin said that the youngster has the ability to read races and to know exactly when to do what during a race. Meintjes started off as a mountain biker. It was only when he turned 15 that he took up road cycling. According to Meintjes his main goal as a cyclist is to keep improving every year.
“The moment I realise that I am beginning to stagnate as a cyclist, I will quit. It will simply not make sense for me to go through the motions, knowing that I am actually wasting my time. Cycling is not just a few hours a day on a bicycle. It’s a lifestyle. You have to eat right, do your training 100% and if are not training you have to rest as well as you can so that you can go train 100% again the next day. I spend about 20 hours a week on the bike,” Meintjes tells us.
“Actually I really like riding my bike, so I go ride my bike even if I just want to relax. I also spend a lot of time reading and researching my next races on the Internet.”
72
Game On Magazine, November/December: Issue 02, 2013
ATHLETE PROFiLE FEATURE: ROAD CYCLING
SIDE BAR
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS For 2013 2nd at UCI World Championship in Florence in under-23 road race 1st in National Championship, Road Race, under-23, South Africa (RSA) 1st in National Championship, ITT, under-23, South Africa (RSA) 1st in Stage 5 Tour de Korea, Chungju (KOR) 4th in Stage 3 Tour de Korea, Yeongju (KOR) 4th in General Classification Tour de Taiwan (TPE) 5th in Stage 8 Tour de Korea Henan , South Korea 6th in Stage 4 Tour de Taiwan, Taichung (TPE) 9th General Classification Tour de Korea, South Korea 10th General Classification La Tropicale Amissa Bongo (GAB)
BACK-PEDAL to 1891 ... Louis Meintjes was an outstanding cyclist in the old Republic of Transvaal in 1891, and during the following two years he rightly qualified for the honour of being the undisputed champion of what would later become South Africa. Most of the cycling clubs in Southern Africa organised meetings during 1893 to defray the expenses of sending Meintjes to Britain or America, where he would compete against the best riders in the world. The young rider, unheralded and unsung, rode brilliantly in 1893 in Chicago (USA), establishing world records for distances ranging from 3 - 50 miles. In doing so he became not only Southern Africa’s first cycling world champion, but also Southern Africa’s first world champion in any kind of sport. After Meintjes returned home, he again dominated the scene in 1894, but this was to be his last competitive season. He had his own business and could not find the time to ride and keep his business going as well. Consequently, Southern Africa lost the services of a great rider in his prime. Lappe Laubscher has some interesting trivia about Louis Meintjes who rode in the colours of his sponsor, Sir Abe Bailey. Bailey owned a number of race horses and the jockeys who rode his horses wore a green shirt with a golden collar. Meintjes’s cycling jersey was also green with a golden collar. Laubscher speculates that Meintjes had set the trend for what was later to become the famous green and gold, the colours that are still worn by athletes who represent South Africa on the rugby field as well as at the Olympic Games.
Game On Magazine, November/December: Issue 02, 2013
73