Jef Van Meirhaeghe (born 21 January 1992) is a Belgian road cyclist, who most recently rode for Belgian amateur team CT Stroobant–Bataia. Van Meirhaeghe has also competed professionally for in 2015 and 2016.

Career

Amateur career

As a junior, Van Meirhaeghe won the 2010 Junior

Tour of Flanders The Tour of Flanders () may refer to the following cycle races: * Tour of Flanders (men's race) The Tour of Flanders (), also known as ''De Ronde'' (''"The Tour"''), is an annual road bicycle racing, road cycling race held in Belgium every spri ...

. After a year riding for the Soenens–Construkt Glas team, he rode for the team from 2012 to 2014. In May 2014, he finished in the top ten of the Paris–Arras Tour, his best stage-race result to that point. In July 2014, he finished on the podium of the under-23 edition of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, having been in a breakaway with the eventual race winner,

Dimitri Claeys Dimitri Claeys (born 18 June 1987) is a Belgian former cyclist, who competed as a professional from 2007 to 2022 for six different teams. During his professional career, Claeys took five victories – including the general classification at the 2 ...

. During this time he rode principally as a ''

domestique In road bicycle racing, a domestique is a rider who works for the benefit of their cycling team, team and leader, rather than trying to win the race. In French, ''domestique'' translates as "servant".However, in French, the term used is ''équip ...

'' for other riders, rarely having a chance to race for himself. In August 2014, Van Meirhaeghe became the under-23 Belgian national road race champion, winning the race in a solo breakaway despite a gear-shift problem. Shortly after this victory, it was announced that Van Meirhaeghe was among six neo-professionals to sign for the Professional Continental cycling team for the 2015 season.

Professional career

His first race for the team came at the

2015 Tour of Qatar The 2015 Tour of Qatar was the 14th edition of the Tour of Qatar cycling stage race. It was organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), the organisers of the Tour de France. The race was rated as a 2.HC event, the second highest rating an e ...

. He subsequently raced in the

2015 Tour of Oman The 2015 Tour of Oman was the sixth edition of the Tour of Oman cycling stage race. It was rated as a 2.HC event on the 2015 UCI Asia Tour, and was held from 17 to 22 February 2015, in Oman. The race was organised by the municipality of Muscat, ...

. He joined the breakaway on the first stage in an attempt to gain the young rider's jersey but failed. He then entered the breakaway on every subsequent stage of the race and was awarded the combativity jersey at the end of the race. On the final stage of the race, Van Meirhaeghe was part of the breakaway group that stayed away to the end of the race. He was tired following his efforts earlier in the race and did not even need to enter the breakaway in order to win the combativity classification, but he was ultimately able to stay with the leading riders. In the final part of the stage, he was beaten by his companions

Matthias Brändle Matthias Brändle (born 7 December 1989) is an Austrian professional road bicycle racer. Brändle is a seven-time winner of the Austrian National Time Trial Championships (2009, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2019, 2020 and 2021), and also won the Austrian ...

and

Iljo Keisse Iljo Keisse (born 21 December 1982) is a Belgian former racing cyclist, who competed as a professional from 2005 to 2022. Keisse races on the track and on the road, specializing himself until recently in riding six-day races. He notably has won ...

; he took third place on the stage, which was the biggest result of his career to that point.

Major results

;2011 : 7th

Grand Prix Impanis-Van Petegem The GP Impanis-Van Petegem (also known as the Super 8 Classic) is a single-day road bicycle race held annually since 1982 in the region of Flemish Brabant, Belgium. The race was originally organized as a tribute to Raymond Impanis in and aroun ...

;2012 : 6th

Memorial Van Coningsloo The Memorial Van Coningsloo (also named Memorial Philippe Van Coningsloo) is a European single day cycle race held each year with the start in Wavre and finish in Rijmenam. The race was first organized in 1993 to commemorate local amateur cyclist ...

;2013 : 4th Overall

Carpathian Couriers Race The Carpathian Couriers Race is a professional cycling race held annually in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. It is part of the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing competitions which w ...

;2014 : 1st Road race, National Under-23 Road Championships : 3rd

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad U23 The Omloop Het Nieuwsblad U23 is a cycling race held annually in Flanders, Belgium. It was previously part of the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing competitions which were introduced in 2005 by the U ...

: 8th Overall Paris–Arras Tour : 8th

Antwerpse Havenpijl The Antwerpse Havenpijl is a European bicycle race held in Merksem, Belgium. Since 2006, the race has been organised as a 1.2 event on the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing competitions which were i ...

;2015 : 1st Jersey red green

Combativity classification

Tour of Oman The Tour of Oman is an annual professional road bicycle racing stage race held in Oman since 2010, as part of the UCI Asia Tour through 2019 and on the UCI ProSeries since 2022. It was scheduled to become part of the new UCI ProSeries in 2020, b ...

: 2nd

Grand Prix Criquielion The Grand Prix Criquielion is a European single day cycle race held each year in and around the Belgian village of Deux-Acren. The race was first organized in 1991 in honour of Claude Criquielion, who had announced his retirement that same year ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Meirhaeghe, Jef 1992 births Living people Belgian male cyclists Cyclists from Ghent 21st-century Belgian sportsmen