Tour de France: Valentin Paret-Peintre delivers France at Mont Ventoux

Coming from the breakaway, the Soudal Quick-Step climber beat Irishman Ben Healy in the sprint, with whom he engaged in a epic battle on the lunar and murderous slopes of Mont Chauve, invaded by tens of thousands of spectators.

The two men finished ahead of Santiago Buitrago and Ilan Van Wilder, a teammate of "VPP" who returned from the devil vauvert to offer a final relay to the French climber after the flame rouge.

Yellow jersey rider Tadej Pogacar finished 43 seconds behind the winner, gaining another two seconds on his rival Jonas Vingegaard.

The Dane attacked him three times, each time propelled by a different teammate, on the ascent of one of the toughest passes in Europe.

But Pogacar responded each time, sticking to the Dane's wheel, before also attempting an attack, which was stopped by Vingegaard, in a duel that was also thrilling.

In the general classification, the Slovenian now has a 4:15 lead over Vingegaard with five stages to go in Paris.

Valentin Paret-Peintre delivered the French nation, which was beginning to fear a zero point for only the third time in the more than century-old history of the Tour de France.

He becomes the fifth Frenchman to win at the summit of the giant of Provence after Raymond Poulidor, Bernard Thévenet, Jean-François Bernard and Richard Virenque, joining a royal line of great champions to have won on Ventoux.

This is the third victory in the career of the featherweight from Haute-Savoie (1.72 m, 58 kg) after a stage in the Giro in 2024 and in the Tour of Oman this year.

Aurélien Paret-Peintre's younger brother left his Decathlon-AG2R cocoon last winter to go to Belgium to join Remco Evenepoel's team.

For Soudal Quick-Step, it's a nice revenge after Evenepoel's retirement from the Tourmalet last week.

This is the fourth victory on this Tour for the Belgian team after Evenepoel's victory in the time trial in Caen and Tim Merlier's two sprint victories.