For the second consecutive year, Louis Meintjes ended in the top ten of the final classification of the Critérium du Dauphiné, which is considered the last major test before the Tour de France.
The South-African rider, who finished tenth yesterday on the Col de la Croix de Fer, was ninth today on the spectacular finish and extremely steep slopes of La Bastille, after covering the Col de Mouilles, du Granier, du Cucheron and de Porte.
After eight stages, Louis Meintjes finished the race in seventh place in the final classification. He concluded a fantastic week of the team of Jean-François Bourlart, which heads home with six top ten finishes among which a stage victory of Georg Zimmermann on Crest-Voland and a podium of Rune Herregodts.
Herregodts, who was caught with 20 meter to go after a magnificent breakaway on day one, wore the white jersey for three days and also distinguished himself in the time trial with the seventh best time on a hard course of 31 kilometer.
The 20 year old Estonian rider Madis Mihkels, protected rider for the sprints, participated in his first World Tour race of his career. With his eighth place on day five he achieved his first top ten at the highest level.
"Since the Tour de France 2022, I often share the room with Georg Zimmermann. To see him winning his first World Tour race on Friday made me so happy! We have an excellent week behind the back with the team here in the Dauphiné. Personally, I'm pleased with my seventh place in the final classification, because it means that I made up my training deficit after getting ill in May. As I was well positioned in the classification, it was complicated to plan an attack the last couple of days. So my strategy was to follow the best riders as long as possible. The past eight days were very demanding, I can feel it in the legs. So I will take it easy for a couple of days before returning to altitude in Andorra to prepare my main goal in July."
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