Paret Peintre wins on Mont Ventoux. Pogacar and Vingegaard's spectacular duel ends in a draw.

France returned to Mont Ventoux after a 23-year absence, also claiming its first victory in this edition of the Tour de France. On what is probably the most captivating finish of this Grande Boucle, Valentin Paret Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) succeeded Richard Virenque (who won there in 2002): the Frenchman finished ahead of Irishman Ben Healy (Ef Exducation-Esaypost) in a thrilling two-man sprint. Colombian Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) secured an excellent third place.

An escape that started a long time ago

They were all part of a breakaway that had started from afar (with them Wright, Arensman, Velasco, Abrahamsen, Mas, Van Wilder, Trentin and Alaphilippe), and which had accumulated several minutes of advantage over the most expected riders, Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard.

Vingegaard's accelerations, Pogacar's reaction

Despite this, the winner only had a handful of seconds left at the finish line, thanks to the terrifying acceleration of the big names: the Dane repeatedly attempted to attack, but the yellow jersey always responded in a highly spectacular duel that ended in a draw.

Van der Poel out on the day that saw grandfather Poulidor triumph

Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel did not start, having been forced to withdraw due to pneumonia. Sixty years ago, his grandfather, Raymond Poulidor, had triumphed on Ventoux, so much so that VDP's team, Alpecin Deceuninck, wore a commemorative jersey.

Order of arrival

1) Valentin Paret-Peintre FRA (Soudal Quick Step) 4h03'19"2) Ben Healy IRL (EF Education) st

3) Santiago Buitrago COL (Bahrain Victorious) at 4"4) Ian Van Wilder BEL at 14"5) Tadej Pogacar SVN at 43"6) Jonas Vingegaard DNK at 45"7) Enric Mas ESP at 53"8) Julian Alaphilippe FRA at 1'17"9) Primoz Roglic SVN at 1'51"10) Florian Lipowitz GER at 1'53"

General classification

1) Tadej Pogacar SVN (UAE Emirates) 58h24'46"2) Jonas Vingegaard DNK (Visma Lease a Bike) at 4'15"3) Florian Lipowitz GER (Red Bull Bora) at 9'03"4) Oscar Onley GBR at 11'04"5) Primoz Roglic SVN at 11'42"6) Kevin Vauquelin FRA at 13'20"7) Felix Gall AUT at 14'50"8) Tobias Johannessen NOR at 17'01"9) Ben Healy IRL at 17'52"10) Carlos Rodriguez ESP at 20'45"