Louis Meintjes joins the ranks of retirees bowing out at Il Lombardia
Il Lombardia marks the last professional race of a handful of pros this weekend, and joining Salvatore Puccio, Pieter Serry, Simone Petilli and Rafał Majka in the pre-start guard of honour was 33-year-old South African Louis Meintjes.
The South African climber has seven wins to his name including a stage of the 2022 Vuelta a España, GC wins at the Giro dell'Appennino and Settimana Coppi e Bartali, as well as national and continental road titles. Throughout, but especially in the first half of his career, he was often in the Grand Tour GC conversation with five top-10 finishes, including three at the Tour de France, narrowly missing out (to the Yates twins) on the youth classification in 2016 and 2017.
