Tour de France: Valentin Paret-Peintre wins Mont Ventoux thriller as Jonas Vingegaard fails to crack Tadej Pogacar on Stage 16

Paris [France], July 23 : France's Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) ended the host nation's long wait for a win with a nail-biting Tour de France Stage 16 victory on Mont Ventoux as Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates-XRG) weathered the storm to strengthen his grip on the yellow jersey by two extra seconds.

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) put in no fewer than three huge attacks on the Giant of Provence - benefiting from Visma satellite riders Teisj Benoot and Victor Campenaerts to put his big rival Pogacar under pressure, as per a press release.

But the triple Tour winner had an answer for each of the Dane's accelerations before kicking clear on the final ramp to cross the line a couple of seconds clear of Vingegaard in fifth place after what had been a thrilling four-way battle for the stage spoils.

Paret-Peintre entered the final kilometre of the savage ascent in a leading trio alongside Ireland's Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) and Colombia's Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious) after Spain's Enric Mas (Movistar) was distanced towards the end of the 171.5km stage through Provence.

As the pace eased, a fourth rider battled back on - but it was not Mas. Instead, Paret-Peintre's Soudal Quick-Step team-mate Ilan van Wilder emerged from nowhere to completely alter the dynamic of the finale. The Belgian then put in a turn on the front to give the Frenchman a break - and when Healy made his final sustained push for a second victory on the Tour, Paret-Peintre had his measure.

After the sharp final bend, the 24-year-old whippet climber rounded Healy on the steep ramp to the line to take the biggest win of his career in some style. It was his Soudal Quick-Step team's fourth win on this Tour after Tim Merlier's two sprint scalps and Remco Evenepoel's victory in the Stage 5 time trial. It also offered the team a huge boost following Evenepoel's withdrawal from the race on Saturday.

Stage 6 winner Healy took second place and rose back to ninth in the general classification, while Buitrago completed the podium ahead of Van Wilder, who emotionally embraced Paret-Peintre over the line.

The battle for yellow played out less than a minute down the road, with Pogacar matching Vingegaard's flurry of attacks and then seeing the Dane hold firm after his own acceleration in the final kilometre.

But the Slovenian's superior uphill kick eventually saw the 26-year-old Pogacar open a small gap over his Danish rival on the final ramp as the yellow jersey came home 43 seconds down on Paret-Peintre for a fifth place that puts him just 11 points shy of Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) in the green jersey standings.

Lipowitz consolidated his third place on the virtual podium and grip on the white jersey after his Scottish rival Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) was tailed off on the climb and finished 33 seconds behind in fourteenth. Roglic, meanwhile, rose into the top five at the expense of Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels) after the Frenchman conceded the best part of two minutes.

After Monday's second rest day, a trip up Mont Ventoux was always going to be a portentous start to the final week of the Tour. But with the climb not coming until the very end of the stage, it took a long while before a breakaway to finally go up the road.

Tudor team-mates Marc Hirschi and Marco Haller combined with Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in a trio that never gained more than 45 seconds' advantage as numerous countermoves attempted to bridge over.

The position of the intermediate sprint at Chateauneuf-du-Pape after 112km made the opening hour of raving a tense affair, with the Lidl-Trek team of green jersey Milan initially alert to the dangers and seemingly keen to get their man in any move - or, at least, keep that three-man attack on a tight leash.

But when a large 34-man breakaway formed shortly after the leaders were brought to heel, Milan was nowhere to be seen and Lidl-Trek only had their Latvian champion Toms Skujins in the mix.

A strong break formed with the UAE and Visma teams of Pogacar and Vingegaard both placing two satellite riders up the road. Shortly before the sprint, the break split in two and seven went clear, including previous stage winners Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) and Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility).

Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious), Matteo Trentin (Tudor Pro Cycling) and Simone Velasco (Astana) were also in the front split alongside Mas and Alaphilippe - although Britain's Wright soon dropped back to help pace his team-mate Buitrago, who rode with the likes of Healy, Paret-Peintre and Van Wilder in the chase group just under two minutes behind.

While Nils Politt (UAE) was responsible for chasing down many of the early moves, the rangy German was Pogacar's only team-mate pulling in the pack, which started the final 15.7km climb around six minutes in arrears - any hopes of a fourth stage win for the yellow jersey seemingly up in smoke.

Mas, three-time runner-up in his native Vuelta, rode clear of the leaders shortly after the start of the climb in the claustrophobic wooded section, the Spanish veteran quickly opening a gap of 45 seconds.

Behind, the remnants of the leading group fell to the wayside one by one, with Stage 14 winner at Superbagneres, Arensman, clearly struggling in the heat. It was Healy, the previous yellow jersey who won Stage 6 to Vire Normandie, who led the chase - the Irishman combining well with Paret-Peintre but berating Buitrago for a perceived lack of cooperation.

With Pogacar isolated and UAE's satellite riders Marc Soler and Pavel Sivakov unable to offer their man in yellow much support, Visma looked to wear down Pogacar. After Simon Yates and Sepp Kuss peeled away, Vingegaard put in the first of three big attacks.

The gap had come down to around a minute by the time Pogacar put in his own first attack, which Vingegaard easily matched to shroud a sense of stalemate over proceedings. That said, the duo would still set a new climbing record on Mont Ventoux of 54:30, 1:20 faster than the previous record by Spain's Ibay Mayo in 2004.

Paret-Peintre still had to finish things off - and when Healy surged clear before the final bend, it looked like the Irishman was going to be rewarded with his second stage win of the race. But his French counterpart summoned up the strength inside to pass the man in pink and take a worthy win on one of the sport's most iconic summits.

It was only Paret-Peintre's third career win - and the biggest since his maiden stage win at the Giro last summer. Healy, his head down, crossed the line for second place, while Buitrago came home four seconds down for third, ahead of Van Wilder.

Pogacar may regret his team's inability to keep the advantage of the breakaway down, which ended his chances of a fourth win on this increasingly one-sided Tour. But with two more big summit finishes in the Alps later this week, Pogacar will have ample opportunity to add to his already swelling Tour palmares.

While unable to shake off Pogacar, Vingegaard said his attacks gave him extra motivation ahead of the Alps. The 28-year-old also voiced his anger at being knocked off his bike at the finish by a photographer.

The world champion's lead over Vingegaard is up to 4:15 with third place Lipowitz now over nine minutes back - and tenth place Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) over 20 minutes in arrears. Level on points with Martinez in the KOM standings and just 11 points shy of Milan in the points classification, Pogacar's dream of winning all three jerseys in Paris remains intact.

Wednesday's 160.4km Stage 17 from Bollene to Valence offers a final chance for Milan and the sprinters to leave their mark on the race, with two Cat.4 climbs, perhaps unlikely to trouble the fastmen too much. But with legs increasingly weary on this demanding 112th edition of the Tour, nothing is guaranteed. The Tour de France 2025 moves into Stage 17: Bollene - Valence, with the live action taking place on EUROSPORT and EUROSPORT HD.

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