Paris: UAE Team Emirates’ rider Louis Meintjes equalled last year’s personal best in the Tour de France with another eighth-place finish in the General Classification and a second in the Youth Classification.
It mimics exactly what the South African achieved last year while riding for Lampre-Merida, before that outfit was rebranded UAE Team Emirates.
In all UAE Team Emirates recorded eight top 10 stage finishes in this year’s Tour de France with two podiums. Diego Ulissi finished second in stage 15, as did Darwin Atapuma in stage 18. Other top 10s saw Ben Swift finish seventh in stage two and ninth in stage 11, while Manuele Mori finished eighth in stage four. Meintjes claimed the rest finishing fifth in stage 12, ninth in stage 17 and seventh in stage 18.
This year’s Tour de France was retained by Britain’s Chris Froome of Team Sky who has now won four titles in the annual 21-stage 3,500km race.
Meintjes said; “I think it was a good Tour, we came here with the goal of a solid performance in the GC and we tried our best. I don’t think eighth place is a bad result, however you always want to improve. It was a good few weeks with lots of great memories. Now we will have a week of rest in order to recover and refocus for the remainder of the season.”
