The last week of the 112th Tour started with a spectacular 16th stage finishing on Mont Ventoux. Tadej did not get involved in the fight for the stage victory, which was claimed by the strongest among the breakaway, Valentin Paret Paintre (Soudal Quick Step).
»My form is good, but it was quite scary to come out of the rest day and immediately have to tackle Mont Ventoux. But I came out of it well. Luckily, I didn’t have the same legs as in 2021. We weren’t really interested in winning the stage; the breakaway deserved it,« said Tadej after staging an extraordinary battle with Joans Vingegaard (Visnma Lease a Bike) on the climb to the giant of Provence.
The Dane attacked four times, and Tadej responded twice with an exelaration. »Sometimes I was at my limit. But the important thing was not to go too deep and lose time. I kept a little bit in reserve, and I simply tried to stay with Jonas. The big goal was to defend the yellow today and nothing else,« Tadej continued.
In the finish, he nevertheless beat Jonas as they took 5th and 6th place in the stage, and Tadej increased his overall lead over him to 4:15. Despite this, Tadej says he is not invincible.
»I’m definitely not Superman, I was born in Ljubljana, not wherever Superman was born, I forgot where that was. But today’s climb was epic nonetheless. I was coming pretty fast, I saw the winners ahead of me in the last 800 meters, but even Superman couldn’t catch them there. In the end I was actually quite close to the breakaway, chapeau to Valentin Paret-Peintre, he deserved the victory. It was a super-nice win,« said Tadej, who became the new record holder of Mont Ventoux. He rode it in 54:41 and, together with Vingegaard (who was two seconds behind), significantly improved the previous best time of 55:51 by Iban Mayo from 2004.
»»I don’t think we could have ridden much faster. Jonas and his team did very good pacing, for today this was the limit for how fast we could ride. We rode hard to the bottom, first there was a fight for position, then more pacing, then he had Tiesj Benoot and Victor Campenaerts waiting for him, so their pacing was really executed perfectly. It all went pretty fast, though maybe if we’d cut a few corners, we’d have taken a couple more seconds and it’d have been quicker,« Tadej assessed that the climb on Mont Ventoux, where he again took over the polka dot jersey, was at the limit of his capabilities.
Tomorrow he faces an easier test on paper, the flat 18th stage from Bollene to Valence, where strong winds could cause problems for the peloton. Then follow the decisive alpine stages with summit finishes on Col de la Loze and La Plagne. »This was a mountain stage with a single climb and a long effort to reach its foot. The next days will be tougher,« added Tadej.
Nevertheless, he is looking forward to these challenges, where there will be the most Slovenian fans in the 2025 Tour de France: »There were so many people on the sidelines. The Alps will be amazing, with a lot of Slovenians along the road for me and Primož Roglič. It’s going to be a race all the way to Paris, for sure.«