Less than a minute after Tadej Pogačar clinched his second consecutive stage win in the 2022 Tour de France, a group of pursuers came to the line on the gravel finisher on La Planche des Belles Filles, including Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty- Goebert). The only thing that surprised about his strong performance on stage seven was that he completed it on foot.
The South African was in high spirits after finishing 16th on the first major summit stage of the Tour de France, 51 seconds behind Pogačar, and laughed at the comparison to Chris Froome’s run up Mont Ventoux in the 2016 Tour.
“Yes, we Africans, we love to run!” Meintjes joked, according to CyclingWeekly (opens in new tab). “In the end I ran 50 meters, maybe even 60 meters. It was tough because I almost lost a shoe too.”
Meintjes said his gaits blocked the dirt 500m final.
“I think it was just a little too springy, or some gravel got stuck in the rear derailleur and it went into crash mode. Even at that moment you needed special gears to go up because it’s so steep.
“When it started to shift, there wasn’t much I could do. I was close enough so his options were to fix it or let it run,” he said. “I’m not a mechanic, so maybe it was to run faster.”
In the end, the lost 51 seconds didn’t change his position in the overall standings. He was already over five minutes behind after a dismal day in Stage 5 and even gained 12 positions as some of the flatlanders finished in gruppetto. But he was unhappy that the mechanic cost him a chance to catch up some time.
“I had super good legs today and it’s really disappointing that it didn’t happen in the final. It’s really quite steep and you can’t get up or the tires slip.
“At some point I thought about trying something because I saw that a lot of people were struggling. Not [Primož] Roglič or the other guys, but the other guys who are real contenders for the top 10. Today could have been a good day to invest time in her.”
There was considerable debate as to whether difficult terrain such as stage 5 cobblestones and gravel tracks should be included in the Tour de France because of the chaos they cause, but Meintjes did not mind the inclusion of dirt roads.
“In my opinion there are a lot of unnecessary things: flat stages, mass sprints,” said Meintjes. “Well I guess so [the gravel] simply part of racing. Actually, today wasn’t that bad. I mean it’s a bit of gravel at the end of the race and it makes the race a little bit more special. If I had to complain, it would be more about putting cobblestones in the race.”