Louis Meintjes reinforces Top 10 position in GC standing

Stage 17 wrapped up with UAE Team Emirates’ Louis Meintjes reinforcing his eighth place in the General Classification (GC) standings after crossing the finish line amongst the top ten. Meintjes’ strong performance during the stage saw him reduce the time gap between him and White Jersey rival Simon Yates (Orica-Scott) to 2:28. UAE Team Emirates’ Darwin Atapuma also made his mark on the stage coming 12th overall and cresting Le Tour’s highest summit the Galibier second, just missing out on the “Souvenir Henri Desgrange” which is awarded to the first rider to reach the summit of the highest mountain in each year’s tour.

Slovenian Primoz Roglic (Team LottoNL-Jumbo) took the stage win in an unexpected turn of events following his crash on the first climb of the day, whilst Chris Froome (Team Sky) retains the Yellow Jersey for stage 18.

Commenting on today’s result, Louis Meintjes said: “My legs felt good today and the team worked really well together. Having Atapuma in the breakaway helped me in the last bit and we gave it a good try. Tomorrow is a mountain stage and another important one. I think we will see more time gaps and hopefully we can make a big enough difference to improve the result.”

Stage 18 marks the last of the mountain stages and will be the scene for the final showdown between the climbers at Le Tour with some potential for the spirited attackers. The stage starts in Briançon and goes all the way to the Col d’Izoard covering 179.5km. The last ten kilometres before the summit of the Izoard are at an average gradient of 9%.

Stage 17 results

1 Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 5:07:41

2 Rigoberto Uran (Col) Cannondale-Drapac + 1’13’’

3 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky +1’13’’

9 Louis Meintjes (SA) UAE Team Emirates +1’44’’

General Classification results after stage 17

1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 73:27:26

2 Rigoberto Uran (Col) Cannondale-Drapac +27’’

3 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale +27’’

4 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team +53’’

5 Mikel Landa (Spa) Team Sky +1’24’’

6 Daniel Martin (Irl) Quick-Step Floors +2’37’’

7 Simon Yates (GBr) Orica-Scott +4’07’’

8 Louis Meintjes (RSA) UAE Team Emirates +6’35’’