Stage 16

The road

At the start

Mont Ventoux, and nothing else

One climb, and it is the Giant of Provence: 171 kilometres across the Vaucluse, then twenty-one kilometres of bare white rock to the line. Tadej Pogačar leads Jonas Vingegaard by 4:13 and has not been beaten on a mountain in this race. Visma have three summit finishes left to change that, and this is the first of them.

How it was won

1. 165 km to go

   The break before the giant

   A large break fights clear before the Giant of Provence; with 65km to go the road begins to tilt toward Mont Ventoux.

2. 216 km to go

   Visma set the trap

   At the foot of the 21km climb the GC teams mass at the front, Visma setting a furious tempo to isolate Pogačar.

3. 37 km to go

   Paret-Peintre vs Healy

   On Ventoux's lunar upper slopes Valentin Paret-Peintre and Ben Healy break clear and trade attacks, the Frenchman clinging on against the EF man.

4. 45 km to go

   Vingegaard probes, Pogačar holds

   Behind, Vingegaard attacks again and again in the last 5km, but Pogačar refuses to crack, marking every move on the bare mountain.

5. 5At the line

   A French win on Ventoux

   Paret-Peintre pips Healy by inches at the summit for an emotional French victory on Ventoux; Pogačar and Vingegaard finish locked together.

The result