Enfin! A French stage winner in the Tour de France

Perth Now

22-07-2025

Valentin Paret-Peintre has kept his cool in a furnace of pressure and heat, delivering a thunderous victory atop the legendary Mont Ventoux to give France its first win in this year's Tour de France during a breathtaking Stage 16.
The Soudal-Quick Step rider edged out Ireland's Ben Healy in a heart-pounding sprint finale on the Giant of Provence, while Tadej Pogacar remained unshakable in yellow, fending off Jonas Vingegaard on the brutal 21.5 km ascent averaging 7.5 per cent.
Defending champion Pogacar clawed two more seconds from his Danish rival in a final surge to extend his overall lead to 4 mins 15 secs.
Germany's Florian Lipowitz held firm in third at 9:03, pulling further ahead of fourth-placed Briton Oscar Onley, who lags another 2:01 behind.
Ben O'Connor, in 12th, 30:08 behind Pogacar, is the only Australian in the top 25 GC riders. He was also the best-placed Aussie in the stage, finishing 32nd, 6.07 adrift of Paret-Peintre
The day belonged to the 29-year-old from the French-Swiss border town of Annemasse, whose lack of belief turned into defiance and then glory.
"I honestly didn't believe it," he said. "I thought Pogacar would go for victory today. But when we built a real gap, I told myself, you can't let a win on Mont Ventoux slip through your fingers."
After the Tour's second rest day, stage 16 took the riders 171.5 km from Montpellier in the south of France on a long flat course until they reached the brutal climb up Ventoux.
Mathieu van der Poel, who had been third in the points classification, withdrew before Tuesday's stage with pneumonia.
Seven riders surged ahead from an early breakaway, carving out a healthy 6:30 buffer as they reached the base of the climb.
The air grew thinner, the crowds louder and the landscape more lunar.
Spanish climber Enric Mas looked like the chosen one, attacking solo with 14.2 km to the summit. Behind him, Paret-Peintre, Healy, and Colombia's Santiago Buitrago gave chase.
As they passed Chalet Reynard - where pine forest yields to desolate, white-stone slopes - it became a survival march.
Mas and Buitrago fought valiantly but were dropped by the Franco-Irish duo, only to courageously claw their way back before being left behind again with 400 metres to go when Healy launched his sprint.
But Paret-Peintre, with ice in his veins and fire in his legs, clung to his wheel. In the final, agonising metres, he surged past, claiming not just a stage win, but also a place in French cycling folklore.
He was only the fifth Frenchman to conquer the Ventoux.
Buitrago was third.
Behind the breakaway Vingegaard had attacked a handful of times, but could not shake off Pogacar.
He was further irked after crossing the finish line when, the Dane said, "Some photographer just ran straight in front of me. I don't know what he was doing. I went down. People in the finish area should use their eyes a bit more."