Paret-Peintre’s nail-biting win ends France’s long wait

France’s Valentin Paret-Peintre won Stage 16 of the Tour de France on Mont Ventoux in a tense uphill sprint. Tadej Pogacar extended his GC lead over Jonas Vingegaard, who launched multiple attacks. It was Soudal Quick-Step’s fourth stage win.

HYDERABAD: France’s Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) ended the host nation’s long wait for a win with a nail-biting 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 in Tour de France.

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

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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 171.5 km stage through Provence.

As the pace eased, a fourth rider battled back – 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.

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.