Valentin Paret-Peintre wins at Mont Ventoux, a prestigious success for a French climber on the Tour

Mont Ventoux, whose summit is a mineral desert suspended between heaven and earth, is a tough nut to crack. On Tuesday, July 22, it succumbed to the audacity of a 24-year-old: Valentin Paret-Peintre. The French climber won the ^16th stage of the 2025 Tour , between Montpellier and Mont Ventoux (Vaucluse), beating Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) in the sprint. "It's extraordinary ," reacted the French rider from the Belgian team Soudal-Quick Step after the race. "I said to myself: 'It's a victory on Ventoux, you can't give up!' It's a legendary climb, where a lot has happened and which has international renown. Incredible, I can't believe it."

On the final climb, the Haute-Savoie rider, a novice on the Grande Boucle, responded with composure to the attack of the Irishman, already winner of the ^10th stage . Valentin Paret-Peintre first took a hit, then got in Healy's wheel and, a hundred meters higher, left him behind by tearing himself away from the slope. "I really had trouble overtaking him, but I had to do it," he said. He is the first Frenchman to raise his arms during this ^112th edition of the Tour. Since Richard Virenque, in 2002, no Frenchman had raised his arms at the summit of the "Giant of Provence".

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