At the end of a crazy day, the climber Haut-Savoyard won the first French victory on this tower.
He won the moon. After Raymond Poulidor (1965), Bernard Thévenet (1972), Jean-François Bernard (1987) and Richard Virenque (2002), Valentin Paret-Peintre (24) has ahead of Irish Coriace Ben Healy in the sprint to sign the fifth French victory at the summit of Mont Ventoux, have the most beautiful success of his career. Dizzy. In a decor washed with bleach, joy, fatigue, amazement and lightning happiness hung on a face cut with the serpea decorated with a thin beard. By crossing the line, his cry resonated. To accompany the first victory of a French runner this year on the Tour.
Valentin Paret-Peintre is a child of the ball. His father, a former amateur runner, presides over VC Annemasse, his older brother Aurélien carries the colors of the Decathlon-Ag2r-La Mondiale team on this tower, his sister is a dietician to the Savoyard team. It turned out in 2024 by winning a stage on the Tour of Italy. This year, he distinguished himself by winning on the Tour of Oman before injuring himself (fracture of the sacrum) during Tirreno-Adriatico, in March, and trembling.
In the final, I said to myself: “A victory in the Ventoux, you can’t let go, you can’t let go”
Valentin Paretrere
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The continuation clings, step after step, to one objective: to be at the start of the Tour de France. With among the training outings, scouting and rehearsals on the slopes of Mont Ventoux. « With the idea of the turn in a corner of the head. Win on the Tour, I dreamed, like all French runners. Winning on Mont Ventoux is even more unique. I don’t realize. It’s amazing. Even in the breakaway, I said to myself: “It’s for a victory in the Ventoux”, without really believing it. It is a mythical place in the bicycle, so much happened on these slopes. We see it in its international influence, I am in a Belgian team and when you ask the staff and the other runners: “What is the collar you know best in France?”, They all say: “Mont Ventoux, I was on vacation when I was little or I know”. In the final, I said to myself: “A victory in the Ventoux, you can’t let go, you can’t let go.” »»
“There is the culture of winning in this team”
Valentin Paret-Peintre brings a fourth stage victory to the Belgian training Sudal-Quick-Step (after Remco Evenepoel in Caen, Tim Merlier in Dunkirk and Châteauroux), a team that knew, like the young French climber, revive and reinvent itself after the abandonment of Remco Evenepoel, who came for a podium in Paris, Tap. exhausted. Scheduled to escort it in the climb of the steps, Valentin Paret-Peintre, powered on the front line, did not tremble. He says: « There is the culture of winning in this team, we are there to win, even when we are not the favorites at the start, we always try to win. Davide Bramati (its sports director) was in the car behind me, 2 km, I said to him, “Talk to me, push me.” That’s what he did, it really helped me. I felt the whole team behind me who said: “You can win, it’s your day.” »
Harcelé (four attacks) by Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar has turned into a narrow role of defender
At the top of a bunch of legendary pebbles that the Tour likes to visit. With humility. Without making it too regular. The rarity and expectation serving the desire, sculpting myth. That of an ascent to none other, which, in black and white or in color, has entered the history of the Tour. For its beauty, its ferocity, its cruelty. His heroes, his martyrs.
Tadej Pogacar dreamed of a (new) stage victory. History is a magnet. Harcelé (four attacks) by Jonas Vingegaard, the Slovenian turned into a narrow role of defender. In the shade of the myth. He will not join (yet) Charly Gaul, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Thévenet, Marco Pantani and Chris Froome, the winners of the winning tour at the top of the Diabolique Ventoux. Less aerial, he let the turn breathe. A Frenchman has greatly benefited. Invaded, Mont Ventoux appreciated …