Share

Laurens Meintjes: South Africa's first cycling world champ

accreditation
Share your Subscriber Article
You have 5 articles to share every month. Send this story to a friend!
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
loading...
Loading, please wait...

The boy was so skinny that they called him “Ribs”. Born in 1868 at Aberdeen in the Karoo, young Laurens Meintjes had a talent he had yet to discover. When he went to Johannesburg in 1890, he rode a bike to work. A friend persuaded him to try cycle racing at the Wanderers track.

Laurens turned up with a pair of newfangled pneumatic tyres and won three events. He even set a new South African record for the mile! And his cycling career was launched.

In 1893, the Wanderers sent him to the first world cycling championships in Chicago in the US. He went via Belgium and London, breaking records all the way.

Read this for free
South Africans need to be in the know if we want to create a prosperous future. News24 has kept the country informed for 25 years, and we're about to enter a new chapter of fearless journalism. Join our free subscription trial to unlock this story and a world of news aimed to inform, empower, and inspire.
Try our free 14-day trial
Already a subscriber? Sign in
heading
description
username
Show Comments ()
Editorial feedback and complaints

Contact the public editor with feedback for our journalists, complaints, queries or suggestions about articles on News24.

LEARN MORE