The French finally got their first stage win through Valentin Paret-Peintre after an enormous battle on the slopes of Mont Ventoux with Ben Healy. The stage featured some big GC changes, points battles and a famous rider abandoned before the race even started on what was a very action packed day.
A fairly flat stage today before ascending to the mythical Mt Ventoux summit finish
171.5km today and 2,950m of elevation gain before finishing on the HC category Mt. Ventoux. Is it a mountain stage or is it not? That’s the question and ASO classified today as a medium stage which meant there were 30 points to the winner in the green jersey competition when normally it’s 20 points for a mountain stage. Crucial for Milan on 251 points? His only rival for green is now Pogacar (223) after Mathieu Van der Poel withdrew from the race this morning suffering from pneumonia.
Mathieu had to say au revoir to Le Tour today, too sick to continue
So Milan knew the stage was crucial to take some points at the intermediate sprint of the day but the rest of the peloton also knew that if they didn’t get to the bottom of Ventoux with at least a 5 minute break over Pogacar and co. then their chances of a stage victory were non existent. Consequence? The pace was on from kilometer zero with 50% of the peloton trying to get in the break. Milan tried numerous times but he couldn’t get a group to stick and it was only the trio of Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Marco Haller & Marc Hirschi (Tudor) who were able to get away.
The break of the day?
This trio’s lead hovered anywhere between ten seconds and two minutes for more than 40km as attacks and counter attacks shook the peloton. UAE with Nils Polit were controlling and didn’t want a big group to get away but the likes of Milan and non GC climbers were desperate to get up the front.
Eventually after more than 70km of racing at 50kph the trio were finally brought back and just 2 kilometers later a massive group of 36 riders forged clear and it was disaster for Lidl-Trek, Milan didn’t make the cut!
In the group there were numerous teams with multiple riders like, two UAEs (Sivakov, Soler), 2 Vismas (Benoot, Campenaerts), 3 Soudal Quick-Steps (Eenkhoorn, V. Paret-Peintre, Van Wilder), 2 Bahrains (Buitrago, Wright), 4 Tudors (Alaphilippe, Haller, Hirschi, Trentin), 3 Movistars (Mas, Barta, Muhlberger) and in form indivduals like Arensman (Ineos) and Ben Healy (EF).
This group finally got well clear of the peloton and we had our break of the day.
Today’s breakaway – 36 riders strong
The break was big and strong and pulling away from the peloton but before the sprint point with 100km still remaining the Tudor duo of Julian Alaphilippe & Matteo Trentin attacked and forced a smaller group clear that also contained Enric Mas (Movistar), Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X), Simoni Velasco (XDS-Astana), Fred Wright (Bahrain) & Pascal Eenkhoorn (Soudal-Quickstep).
Five of the group worked well but Wright & Eenkhoorn had their climbers left behind in the chasing group and they soon decided to drop back and try and bring their respective leaders back up to the front before Ventoux.
The 5 escapees were determined to get to the climb with a maximum advantage though and they arrived at the bottom of Ventoux with just over 1m30s lead over the Ben Healy group. After an attack or two on the lower slopes from Julian Alaphilippe it was Enrique Mas who proved to be the strongest of the five and he rode away solo.
The peloton was being led by Visma and they came to the foot of the climb just over six minutes behind Mas and with a plan in mind. With both Benoot and Campenaerts up ahead Wout Van Aert & Sepp Kuss started the climb very hard before Vingegaard put in his first attack to try and get rid of Pogacar. He bridged up to Benoot with Pogacar stuck in his wheel, Jonas then rested for a while behind his teammate and then he went again!
Pogi stuck close to him though but that didn’t stop Jonas from trying again and again.
A very aggressive Vingegaard gave it his all today
Pogacar couldn’t be unseated though and he even tried an attack of his own but that was quickly answered by Vingegaard.
Up in the break it was also an attack fest as Ben Healy, Santiago Buitrago and Valentin Paret-Peintre all tried to catch up with Mas with solo attacks but finally it was the Irish/French duo of Healy and Paret-Peintre who were able to bridge up with 3km remaining.
These 2 then continued to attack each other and kept dropping Mas with their constant accelerations only for the Spaniard to come back at his own pace moments later. It looked like it would be a sprint between 3 riders at the top of Ventoux but then Buitrago surprisingly made his way back to the front and even more surprisingly, Paret-Peintre’s teammate Ivan Van Wilder.
Van Wilder had been dropped right at the start of the climb but paced himself all the way up, to somehow catch the leaders in the last kilometer! Van Wilder then did an altitude lead-out for Paret-Peintre for the sprint but it was Healy who jumped first with 200m to go but coming around the last bend, Paret-Peintre made his move and he was just too fast for Healy in the sprint. A superb attacking and gutsy ride by both riders but only one could win with Healy at least getting the consolation prize of moving up a little in GC.
Healy didn’t gain too much on Pogacar & Vingegaard though who came in 5th & 6th on the stage just 43 & 45 seconds behind Healy after a very fast ascension.
Pogacar got the better of Vingegaard in the final sprint for the line
Pogacar closed to just 11 points of Milan’s lead in the green jersey competition thanks to his 5th place and the entire Lidl-Trek team will be looking for redemption tomorrow after missing out on putting Milan in the break today. These points lost today could be crucial at the end of the Tour.
Milan is still in green….for now!
After an attacking final climb performed at a very high pace, there were some changes in the GC with it becoming clearer than ever that the battle for the final yellow jersey in Paris is certainly just a two horse race. Who will take the final place on the podium?
Primoz Roglic worked for his teammate Lipowitz who conserved his 3rd place on GC and even increased his lead in the white jersey over his nearest rivals Onley & Vauquelin
Stage 16 Results:
1 Paret-Peintre Valentin Soudal Quick-Step 4:03:19
2 Healy Ben EF Education – EasyPost
3 Buitrago Santiago Bahrain – Victorious @ 0:04
4 Van Wilder Ilan Soudal Quick-Step @ 0:14
5 Pogačar Tadej UAE Team Emirates – XRG @ 0:43
6 Vingegaard Jonas Team Visma | Lease a Bike @ 0:45
7 Mas Enric Movistar Team @ 0:53
8 Alaphilippe Julian Tudor Pro Cycling Team @ 1:17
9 Roglič Primož Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe @ 1:51
10 Lipowitz Florian Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe @ 1:53
11 Mühlberger Gregor Movistar Team @ 2:01
12 Arensman Thymen INEOS Grenadiers @ 2:15
14 Onley Oscar Team Picnic PostNL 10 @ 2:29
15 Rodríguez Carlos INEOS Grenadiers @ 3:02
16 Aranburu Alex Cofidis @ 3:27
17 Gall Felix Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team @ 3:33
18 Yates Adam UAE Team Emirates – XRG @ 3:38
19 García Pierna Raúl Arkéa – B&B Hotels @ 3:42
20 Vauquelin Kévin Arkéa – B&B Hotels @ 3:42
GC After Stage 16:
1 Pogačar Tadej UAE Team Emirates – XRG 8:24:46
2 Vingegaard Jonas Team Visma | Lease a Bike @ 4:15
3 Lipowitz Florian Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe @ 9:03
4 Onley Oscar Team Picnic PostNL @ 11:04
5 Roglič Primož Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe @ 11:42
6 Vauquelin Kévin Arkéa – B&B Hotels @ 13:20
7 Gall Felix Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team @ 14:50
8 Johannessen Tobias Halland Uno-X Mobility @ 7:01
9 Healy Ben EF Education – EasyPost @ 17:52
10 Rodríguez Carlos INEOS Grenadiers @ 20:45
11 Jegat Jordan Team TotalEnergies @ 23:10
12 O’Connor Ben Team Jayco AlUla @ 31:08
13 Martin Guillaume Groupama – FDJ @ 35:14
14 Arensman Thymen INEOS Grenadiers @ 44:20
15 Kuss Sepp Team Visma | Lease a Bike @ 47:59
16 Narváez Jhonatan UAE Team Emirates – XRG @ 52:04
17 Rodríguez Cristián Arkéa – B&B Hotels @ 53:24
18 Mas Enric Movistar Team @ 53:44
19 Higuita Sergio XDS Astana Team @ 54:57
20 Jorgenson Matteo Team Visma | Lease a Bike @ 57:35
The post Tour’25 Stage 16: Paret-Peintre Conquers Ventoux! appeared first on PezCycling News.
