Last year Louis Meintjes (MTN-Qhubeka) took a surprise silver medal in the U23 road race at the World Championships. Having just finished his first Vuelta, the talented climber is back for more in 2014 and is confident in his chances on a course that suits him well.

Going into last year’s World Championships, Louis Meintjes had not been tipped as one of the potential winners of the race. However, the young South African did an outstanding ride on the hilly course in Florence, escaping late in the race to take second behind Mate Mohoric.

This year Meintjes is back in Ponferrada hoping to capitalize on another year of riding at the professional level. Being part of a strong group of young African climbers, the South African has been doing races like Giro del Trentino, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Tour de Suisse and most recently Vuelta a Espana while riding in the colours of MTN-Qhubeka.

Meintjes kicked off his Worlds campaign with today’s time trial where he finished a solid 8th. Not known as a specialist, he was one of the early starters and set an early mark for his rivals to beat. In the end, he was beaten by many of the pre-race favourites but the result was a sign of his encouraging progress in the discipline.

“I think I did a decent effort,” he told CyclingQuotes after the race. “I had some good luck with the weather. It was good.

“I am not a time trial specialist. It is a very fast, very flat course so it was not really ideal for me. I was hoping to get a top 10.”

Some may have been a bit surprised to see Meintjes line up in the time trial instead of focusing all his energy on the road race. Aiming to become a GC contender, however, he is looking for opportunities to test himself in the discipline.

“It’s always an opportunity to show yourself,” he said. “Maybe it’s not to win the race but I can still show that I can fo a good time trial.”

Nonetheless, Meintjes main focus is of course the road race. The course has been heavily discussed, with both sprinters and climbers claiming that they are in with a chance. Belonging to the second rider category, Meintjes has not seen the course yet but he feels confident that he can be in contention for a repeat of last year’s performance.

“I haven’t had a look at the course yet,” he said. “We have only been here for two or three days. So far everything has just been focused on the time trial. Tomorrow I will go and have a look at the course. On paper it looks like it can be a good one. It looks like it can be a course where I can get a result.

Meintjes will be the only rider in the U23 road race who has just come out of the Vuelta. In the long term, there is no doubt that he will benefit from his first grand tour but in the short team, it may be hard to recover for another big race.

“I don’t know,” he said when asked about his recovery. “Some days up, some days down. We will have to see on the day.”

Meintjes had a very decent first grand tour experience. He finished in the top 20 on the two biggest mountain stages where he managed to follow the favourites for a long time. Furthermore, he took a fine 5th place on La Camperona after having been part of the successful breakaway from which Ryder Hesjedal rode away to the stage win.

“I am happy with the way the Vuelta went,” he said. “It was a good experience. I managed to be up there some of the days.”

Nonetheless, he still has some regrets about his performance when he suddenly found himself in contention for a grand tour stage win.

“After every race you think what if,” he said. “But you never know. In the race and in the moment, it is hard to make decisions. I think it was still a good day and I am happy with 5th place.”

MTN-Qhubeka has a mission of developing young African talents but has recently brought in big-name sprinters like Matthew Goss, Tyler Farrar and Edvald Boasson Hagen. This may indicate that the team will focus more on sprints and classics but Meintjes doesn’t see a big chance when it comes to his own position.

“It’s still about developing African cycling,” he said. To develop more, we need to bring more experienced guys and that’s definitely good. We still have a lot learn.

“Maybe it doesn’t change for me. There are others African guys that can get experience from all the sprinters, like Reinardt Janse van Rensburg.”

The experienced riders should help develop Meintjes into one of the best riders in the world and he has lofty goals.

“Every cyclist wants to be the best in the world and to be the best in the world you have to win the Tour de France. I am definitely hoping to be a GC contender but that’s still many years away I think.”