Less than a minute after Tadej Pogachar scored his second consecutive stage win in the 2022 Tour de France, the chase group crossed the finish line on the gravel last spurt of La Planche des Belles Fils. The only surprising thing about his strong ride on stage 7 was that he accomplished it on foot.

The South African, who finished 16th, 51 seconds behind Pogachar, in his first major summit stage finish in the Tour de France, laughed and humorously compared it to Chris Froome's run up Mont Ventoux in the 2016 Tour.

"Yes, we Africans love to run!"

According to CyclingWeekly (opens in new tab), Meintjes joked. 'In the end I ran 50 meters, no, 60 meters. It was tough because I almost lost my shoes."

Meintjes said his gear jammed in the unpaved 500-meter finale.

"I guess I was a little too bouncy, the gravel got stuck in the rear derailleur and I went into crash mode. Already at that moment I needed a special gear to go up that steep gradient."

"Once I started shifting gears, there was nothing I could do. I was almost there, so the choice was fix it or run," he says.

"I'm not a mechanic, so it would have been faster to run."

In the end, the 51-second loss did not make much difference in the overall standings. After a disastrous stage 5 in Pavé, where he was already more than 5 minutes behind, he actually moved up 12 positions because of the flatlanders who finished in the gruppetto. However, he was not happy that the mechanics had cost him a chance to improve his time.

"I had a really good leg today and it's a real shame that I couldn't do that in the final. It was really steep and if I couldn't get up, the tires would slip."

"I saw a lot of riders struggling, so at one point I thought I would try something. Not (Primoš) Roglic and the others, but the other riders competing in the top 10. Today might have been a good day to give them some time."

There was much debate about whether difficult roads like the cobblestones and gravel roads in stage 5 should be included in the Tour de France because they were confusing, but Meintjes was not concerned about the inclusion of dirt roads.

"There are a lot of flat stages and group sprints that are unnecessary in my opinion. I think [the gravel roads] are part of the race." It wasn't that bad today. The little bit of gravel at the end of the race makes the race more special. If I had a complaint, it would be that they put cobblestones in the race."