Alex Meenhorst goes for the double

Meenhorst with Trust House Cycle Classic tour winner and teammate George Bennett ©RoadCycling.co.nz

Jul 29th, 11. NZ's Alex Meenhorst won Stage 2 of the Tour of Alsace last year, and he looked like he was about to do it again today.

Meenhorst, who was part of the winning Cardno team at NZ's Trust House Classic, has had a rough international season to date.

From March through June he was hampered by a knee problem which caused him a lot of pain and swelling with every pedal stroke he took.

With the problem more or less under control, the 24 year old lined up for the six stage UCI2.2 Tour of Alsace this week with his Luxembourg Continental team, Team Differdange.

Today's 153.8km Stage 2 from Strasbourg to Bischoffsheim is the same stage Meenhorst won last year, and the day played out almost the same way - except this year, the Kiwi placed 5th.

It was another Kiwi who was up the front of the action at the beginning of the stage. 2010 NZ Road Champion Jack Bauer, racing for Endura, joined the day's early break which stayed together until the first KOM 40km into the race.

"The two Cat 1 climbs at the beginning of the stage split the peloton to bits," Meenhorst told RoadCycling.co.nz.

After the second KOM, at 55km, what was left of the front of the peloton entered the first of four laps of the finishing circuits under the control of the Rabobank and FDJ teams.

Meenhorst broke free with a small group about 50km to go and launched an attack on the final hill climb 10km before the finish line - just as he did last year. Unfortunately this year, the eventual winner Niels Albert and three others countered his move and proved too strong.

Meenhorst finished 5th, after breaking clear from the chase group. Although disappointed not to win again, he was happy enough to just be feeling so strong on the bike. 

"I was really looking foward to this tour after getting some condition, but I'm really excited for the next phase of racing. I just need to make some things happen in the next two months to hopefully secure something a bit better for next year!" he said.

After upcoming races in Latvia and Estonia, Meenhort has a number of UCI1.2 and 1.1 races to look forward to.

Knee problem explained

Meenhorst's knee problem, which he will have keyhole surgery for at the end of the season, was partly caused by a crash he had last season, but also partly from his physical make-up.