After 7 dry years, Mont Ventoux stage winner Paret-Peintre wants to give France a polka-dot gift

At the TopRiders press conference hosted by A.S.O., the favorites for all the jerseys were discussed: green, yellow, white, and, of course, the polka-dot jersey. For that last category, Soudal Quick-Step rider Valentin Paret-Peintre was called upon; he won last year’s stage that finished on the famous Mont Ventoux.

Romain Bardet was the last Frenchman to win the mountains classification in 2019. “To be honest, I didn’t have that exact statistic in mind, but it’s certainly true that the polka-dot jersey is one of my main goals for this Tour de France. So if I can reset that counter to zero, that would be really great,” he explains.

After his victory on Mont Ventoux last year, people will certainly be paying more attention to him. “As far as my racing style goes, I don’t think much has changed, even though we started last year with a completely different goal. But of course, things have changed around the race itself, so to speak. The crowd recognizes me more quickly, and the media are asking for a bit more of my time.”

Now that Mikel Landa is out of the picture, Paret-Peintre could have gone for the general classification as well. “As I’ve always said: my vision for cycling isn’t to just hang on and finish somewhere between 7th and 10th in the general classification—which, by the way, would already be a great achievement for me,” he explains.

"But as long as I'm not able to compete for a top-5 finish or a spot on the podium, I'm not going to try to ride for the general classification. That's not the case right now. I’d rather focus on individual stages and join the early breakaway. That’s the way I like to race; it suits me and is what works best for me right now."

So it’ll take a while before he really gets down to business: it’s not until day six that we head toward big mountains like the Tourmalet. What are his plans for that? “As far as the team time trial goes, it’s pretty simple: we’re just going to try to post the fastest time possible. There isn’t really any suspense there. The second stage, on the other hand, will be a lot more complicated, with many obstacles along the way.”

"And that final stage at the Montjuïc circuit is very similar to the final stage of the Tour of Catalonia, so it’s not unfamiliar territory for us. But it’s definitely going to cause a lot of stress in the peloton, and there might already be some small time gaps in the general classification. So the peloton will be on edge, and it’s going to be a very tough stage right from the start,” notes Paret-Peitre, whose brother Aurelien rides for Decathlon CMA CGM in the Tour and is therefore on the road with Paul Seixas.

"The roles have reversed a bit compared to last year. We often talk about the pressure you can feel when you're supporting a general classification contender, especially in the Tour de France. But I think he's handling it very calmly, and I'm sure he'll do an excellent job."