Valentin Paret-Peintre, lieutenant of Remco Evenepoel, knew how to seize his luck after the abandonment of the Belgian

The Frenchman won on the 16th stage of the Tour de France, Tuesday, at the summit of Mont Ventoux, for the first tricolor victory on the large 2025 loop.

Cocorico! The first French victory was expected on this Tour de France, and she finally came from Valentin Paret-Peintre, very solid in the ascent of Mont Ventoux, Tuesday July 22. The Frenchman, who changed teams at the offseason, was one of the lieutenants of Remco Evenepoel at the start of this 2025 edition, but he had his card to play after the abandonment of the double Olympic champion in the Pyrenees. Magistral to follow Ben Healy's attacks, he finally won the greatest victory of his career.

“The Ventoux is legendary. Already in France, it is very well known, even if coming from the Alps, there are other passes that I place in front. But being in a Belgian team, I understood that it was the best known internationally”underlined the native of Annemasse before the departure of the 16th stage in Montpellier, without however imagining himself to raise his arms to succeed Richard Virenque, the last French winner at the top of the Géant de Provence, in 2002.

By winning at the top on Tuesday, he also succeeded Raymond Poulidor, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Thévenet or Chris Froome, but had trouble achieving the magnitude of his feat on arrival: “I dreamed like all the runners. Winning on the Tour is something unique, but winning the Ventoux is even more so. Even in the breakaway, I told myself that I was playing victory, but I couldn't believe it”.

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Tuesday morning, already, the Frenchman was struggling to believe in a victory of a runner escaped. “We talked about it in the fictitious departure, and he told me that he was not interested more than that by the stage”even laughed at her great brother, Aurélien, who runs for Decathlon Ag2r La Mondiale. “I thought that (Tadej) Pogacar wanted it and that Uae was going to succeed in controlling the race, a confirmed the victorious cadet. Then a big group came out, so I said to myself: 'Why not go ahead?' I was with two teammates, and there were two UAE guys, so I told myself that it was possible. I felt good, I told the team, and we decided to play the victory for me. I was focused on Ben Healy, I knew that I could beat him with stearfa slopes in the last meters, and I told myself that I wanted more than him because he had already won “.

A great reward for a runner who was not even planned in the Sudal Quick-Step team on the Tour de France at the start of the season, and who was to support Mikel Landa on the Giro. But a fracture of the Coccyx prevented him from making the trip to Italy, and it was therefore integrated into the plans of the Belgian team for the Grande Loucle, in extremis, in order to be the lieutenant of Remco Evenepoel, until his abandonment.

“The goal was to be by his side and help him in the high mountains, I did not project myself at all on a stage victory, so it's quite incrediblehe reacted at a press conference on Tuesday. After the Tourmalet, it was complicated for everyone, then we quickly remobilized the next day by saying that it could also offer us possibilities “. With Valentin Paret-Peintre, the Sudal Quick-Step holds a runner capable of responding present when it is given a chance.

As on the Tour d'Oman in February, his second race with his new training (he previously evolved at Decathlon Ag2r La Mondiale), where he was a leader and won on a stage to finish second in the general classification behind Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates XRG). “It's really fantastic to win here with a young runner who promises a lot. He has a big engine and the grinta of a big runner”welcomed the manager of the Belgian training Tuesday, Jürgen Foreté. After his success on the 10th stage of the Giro in 2024, the young Frenchman already has two steps victories in the Grand Tour, at only 24 years old.