Healy denied second Tour de France stage win
Tadej Pogacar dealt with every attack attempted by rival Jonas Vingegaard and even put a couple of seconds into him at the finish to move four minutes 15 clear in yellow, but stage 16 went to the breakaway at the summit of this most feared of Tour climbs.
Healy, who spent two days in yellow last week, was looking to add to his stage six win as he put in another outstanding attacking ride, but Paret-Peintre would not be denied as he came around the Irishman at the summit of the Giant of Provence.
Healy had done the bulk of the work to reel in an attack from Enric Mas and was then the first to launch his move out of a group of four inside the last few hundred metres.
But the effort told as Paret-Peintre, who had been able to get help from team-mate Ilan Van Wilder in the finale, had the kick to get up the final ramp first.
Is is a fourth win of this Tour for Soudal-QuickStep, who lost leader Remco Evenepoel last week.
"How I won that stage is hard to say, I was thinking 'maybe I can win today, maybe I'm the best climber in this breakaway'," Paret-Peintre said.
"I asked my team-mates to make a good pace at the bottom and I tried so many times to drop Healy but he was very strong and at the end, I was just waiting for the sprint and then I won."
Healy and Paret-Peintre were the final two survivors of a 35-strong breakaway on the 171.5km stage from Montpellier to Ventoux, the first finish here since the chaotic scenes in 2016 when Chris Froome was left running up the mountain after breaking his bike in a crash.
There was not quite that level of drama in the general classification fight this time but it was not for lack of trying on the part of Vingegaard and Visma-Lease A Bike, who had riders up the road in the break and tried to use them to set up the Dane to take time back on Pogacar.
Vingegaard launched his first attack after a big pull from Sepp Kuss, catching Tiesj Benoot before trying again, then taking a turn from Victor Campenaerts before a third dig.
The tactics were excellent, but Pogacar was equal to them all and then put in his own attack going into the final hairpin.
To add to Vingegaard's disappointment, the Dane collided with a photographer after the finish line and hit the deck.
"I went down," Vingegaard said. "People in the finish area should use their eyes a bit more.
"I was feeling very good today so I'm happy with the feeling, happy with the attacks. Of course we didn't gain any time today but I take a lot of motivation."
Oscar Onley finished 14th on the stage but lost 36 seconds to third-placed Florian Lipowitz, leaving the fourth-placed Scot now two minutes off the podium places.
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2 hours ago
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Thymen Arensman wins Tour de France stage 19 as Ben Healy consolidates top 10 placing
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RTÉ News
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Ireland's Ben Healy remains ninth in the general classification with two stages remaining at the Tour de France as Thymen Arensman won the final mountain stage of the punishing race in La Plagne. Healy (EF Education - EasyPost) finished Friday's 19th stage 2:19 minutes down on Arensman, crossing the finish line eighth to keep himself in the top 10 of the GC overall. Tadej Pogacar followed Jonas Vingegaard over the line just behind Arensman, a fourth overall crown now looking safe with his lead at four minutes 24 seconds over Vingegaard, who took back a couple of bonus seconds but nothing more on this final opportunity to make major changes to the standings. Healy is 28 minutes and two seconds adrift of Pogacar. It was a second stage win of his debut Tour for Arensman, who had scored a much-needed victory for the Ineos Grenadiers on stage 14 on Superbagneres. UAE Team Emirates-XRG had looked determined to set up Pogacar for what would have been an exclamation mark of a fifth stage victory of this race on the final climb, but Arensman tried a number of attacks and when he went clear with 13km of the climb remaining, he managed to open a gap. His advantage over Pogacar, Vingegaard, Oscar Onley and Florian Lipowitz hovered at around 30 seconds, the sort of margin a fully-fresh Pogacar would be able to close at will, but the fatigue in everyone's legs perhaps told as the anticipated attack from behind never really materialised. It was only when Onley began to struggle that Lipowitz saw his opportunity to finish off the Scot, moving to the front and upping the pace. But even so, Arensman hung on to win by a couple of seconds. "I feel absolutely destroyed," Arensman said. "I can't believe it. Already to win one stage in the Tour was unbelievable from a breakaway, but now to do it against the GC group, against the strongest riders in the world, it feels like I'm dreaming. I don't know what I just did." The discovery of a contagious disease amongst cattle in the area had forced changes to the route, which was shortened from 129.9 kilometres to 95km, removing two climbs but leaving the main tests of the Col du Pre and the finish to La Plagne, still with 3,250m of climbing packed in. Primoz Roglic had been immediately on the attack in an all-or-nothing attempt to move up from fifth overall, but he was caught before the final climb and quickly distanced to move well down, not up, the general classification. With a hilly but not mountainous stage from Nantua to Pontarlier on the menu for Saturday before Sunday's run into Paris - which this year includes the Montmartre climb - there could still be some changes at the sharp end of the general classification but it is difficult to see the podium changing. Outside of the general classification, Healy is 11th in both the points and mountain classifications, and fourth in the youth rankings.
