Jul 30th, 10. Kiwi Alex Meenhorst won his first European victory with his Team NetApp on the second stage of the Tour Alsace in France today.

Victory for Meenhorst ©Team NetApp

The win in today's 153.8km race comes after the 23 year old climber earned Top 20 places in his last five races.

"The course today was really challenging, there were two 8km+ mountains in the first 50km's and after the second mountain there was only 50 or so riders left," he explained.

"With many attacks following, there quickly became less and less riders and in the final circuit (which we did four times with two good hills in each lap), there were only 25ish riders left. The last 60km was just attack after attack."

NetApp, a UCI Continental team with pro-tour ambitions, had three riders in the front group and were able to keep attacking in search of victory.  One NetApp rider broke free two laps before the finish and stayed away with one other rider.

Receiving his rewards ©Team NetApp

"The two of us worked pretty well together to the finish where we put 1min into the chase group and I won in the sprint which was an uphill finish, perfect for me!"

NetApp Team manager Ralf Denk said he was very proud of his Kiwi.

"I am really happy for Alex. He had some injury-related problems recently and really earned this victory. I congratulate him and the whole team for this extraordinary performance."

Meenhorst is now 2nd on the General Classification, and with the tour leader Pierre-Luc Perichon getting dropped from the chase group today, the Kiwi is hopeful he might move into the yellow jersey.

The Tour of Alsace continues until August 1.

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