Louis Meintjes

Louis Meintjes (born February 21, 1992) is a South African cyclist riding for UAE Abu Dhabi.

Louis announced himself to the cycling world in September 2013, when he earned the silver medal in the World Under 23 Road Race Championships. Louis had an impressive 2014 season where he rode his first grand tour, the Vuelta a Espana. His best result at the Spanish race was 5th place on stage 14. In March 2015, Meintjes won the final stage of the Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali, securing him the overall victory as well. He was named in the start list for the 2015 Tour de France. He finished fifth on the mountain stage to Plateau de Beille before exiting the Tour due to illness. He rode the 2015 Vuelta a España and finished 10th overall doing a solid ride. During the Vuelta in September, he announced that he would be joining Lampre–Merida on a two-year contract from 2016.

He started the 2016 season riding the Tour Down Under and finished 16th Overall, and 5th in the white jersey competition. Meintjes however, first showed his great form from last year in the Criterium du Dauphine by finishing 9th Overall and placing 5th on the stage to Méribel. Then he rode the Tour de France where he showed incredible form taking 8th place Overall and 2nd place Overall in the white jersey competition. He was sitting in 9th place Overall after the 10th stage, however, on the 11th stage, he lost time due to the crosswind. He recovered very well though and did an amazing mountain time trial on Stage 18 securing his 9th Place back. On the following stage to Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc, Meintjes finished fourth sprinting with Rodriguez and Valverde. He finished with the favorites for the next stage getting him 8th place in Paris. Meintjes' next race was the Men's Road Race at the Olympic Games. He finished in 7th place having being dropped before the last climb, however bridging the gap before sprinting to 7th place at the Copacabana Beach.

Major results

Source:

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Grand Tour	2014	2015	2016
Giro	—	—	—
Tour	—	WD	8
Vuelta	55	10	40