Despite a pulled knives duel, the Tadej Pogacar yellow jersey and its Dauphin Jonas Vingegaard did not come to distance themselves at the top of the Provence giant. Vingegaard has shown a combative face in the last 10 kilometers, trying several times to let go of Pogacar. But he replied in the last meters to resume two seconds to his only rival. Generally, the Slovenian’s margin on the Danish is now 4’15.
Under the Provence sun, the 165 runners still in the running started from Montpellier without the Dutch Mathieu Van der Poel, suffering from pneumonia. The stage, 171.5 km long, promised to settle well before Mont Ventoux stands in the last fifteen kilometers. Switzerland Marc Hirschi was also one of the three runners who launched the first trailer leaving after 10 kilometers.
However, the good breakaway was formed with a group of consisting of 30 runners, including four members of the Swiss team Tudor. Four survivors came to the lead at the foot of Mont Ventoux, almost 7 minutes ahead of the peloton, and 90 seconds on a group where Ben Healy and Valentin Paretrere were located.
Enric Mas could believe in victory by abandoning his escape companions 14 kilometers from the summit. But the Mallorcan was exceeded 3.5 kilometers from the summit by Healy and Paret-Pintre. The latter played the Sprint stage victory, and the Frenchman took the best on the Irish to sign the first tricolor victory on this 2025 Tour de France.
On Wednesday, the 17th stage will connect Bollène to Valence for a plain stage which should allow sprinters to get out of the wood. The Tour will then head on the Alps, where Vingegaard will try to doubt Pogacar.