SA’s Louis Meintjes Wins Stage 9 of Vuelta in Spain
South Africa’s Louis Meintjes made a dream come true today (Sunday 28 August) – winning stage nine of the Vuelta a Espana race in Spain, the biggest victory in his career so far. Speaking after his big win, Louis said he still needed time to let the victory set in, but revealed: “I’ve never been […]
South Africa’s Louis Meintjes made a dream come true today (Sunday 28 August) – winning stage nine of the Vuelta a Espana race in Spain, the biggest victory in his career so far.
Speaking after his big win, Louis said he still needed time to let the victory set in, but revealed: “I’ve never been on the podium of a World Tour race except for team classification, so yeah, that was one of my main goals before stopping my career is to get onto the podium of a World Tour race.”
Meintjes powered to victory on Sunday in stage nine of the race with a lung-busting solo effort as Belgian Remco Evenepoel extended his lead at the top of the general classification.
It was Meintjes’ maiden stage win at the Vuelta as he emerged the strongest among the nine-man breakaway group, finishing more than a minute ahead of Italian duo Samuele Battistella and Edoardo Zambanini.
Victory had seemed out of reach for Meintjes when Battistella and Jimmy Janssens broke away in the final 10km but the Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert rider made a remarkable recovery to go past them with 2.5km to go and claim the biggest win of his career.
Monday is a rest day before the riders embark on a 30.9km individual time trial from Elche to Alicante on Tuesday.
Source: Reuters and Vuelta
How it started vs. How it's going #LaVuelta22 pic.twitter.com/TGaVF8VjQv
— Intermarché-Wanty (@IntermarcheW) August 28, 2022