Aurelien Paret-Peintre. If we were in a different Tour de France or another era, this name would have had much more resonance. And yes, because a young rider finishing 15th overall in the Grand Boucle is no small feat. Instead, we're in an era dominated by "child phenoms." evenepoel, pogacar, Bernal, vingegaard and Paret-Peintre arrived "only" fourth in the special classification reserved for the U26s. In front of him, the yellow jersey, the Dane and Gaudu.
Thread-like climber
But let's try to get to know him better. He is a French boy, born in 1995. Born in Annemasse, a stone's throw from the Swiss border, he runs in theAg2R CitroenHe is a complete rider, a “new style” climber, that is, tall and very thin. Think about it: he's 184 centimeters tall and weighs just 64 kilos.
In his house, cycling is a powerful passion. His brother valentine (21 years old), will join him next year at Ag2R Citroen and also his sister Maeva (20 years old) rides a bike.
For most of the Grande Boucle he was also third in the classification for the white jersey, except that David Gaudu, one of his historic rivals with whom he shared the junior races in half of France, failed to make the breakaway towards Saint Gaudens. That day the group took it easy and Paret-Peintre gained 14 minutes from his colleague from the Groupama-Fdj.
The legacy of Bardet and Pinot
Last year he finished his first major Giro right here in Milan. He was 16th in the Giro d'Italia, and the Giro d'Italia, which ended in late autumn, allowed him to start off strong, so much so that win his first professional race, the GP La Marseillaise. Which was also the first of the season, by the way.
"My goal," Paret-Peintre said, "is to keep improving, always. Last year I finished the Giro d'Italia 45 minutes behind the pink jersey, now the Tour is 40 minutes behind the yellow one. In France there are some good young riders, we can continue their legacy." Bardet e Pinot"In this sense, one thing in Paret-Peintre's favor is his ability to withstand pressure. He himself told Le Figaro that it's a role he enjoys. That it's not easy to manage, but it's necessary if you want to become a leader.
The first Tour
For Aurelien, as mentioned, it was his first Tour. “Many people,” Paret-Peintre says, “told me it was different from both the Vuelta and the Giro, but I didn’t believe it that much. Incredible nervousness during the race. I was a text. On a few occasions I even managed to break away, and that was the goal.
"I would have liked to win a stage, but it wasn't easy. In the third week, there were very few chances. If we consider that a team like Ineos He hadn't won yet, I imagined (as it turned out, ed.) that they would try to control the race for Carapaz. And when it's like that the only hope is to have the legs to stay ahead."
We are already looking to the future
"How do I archive my Tour? There were some very good things and some not so good," the Ag2R Citroen rider told Cyclisme Actu. like having suffered a little too much in the third week. But it's important to do certain races to find the right automatic mechanisms. And finally arriving on the Champs-Elysees was a great satisfaction."
Aurelien is ambitious and speaks with clear ideas. As mentioned, he wants to continue to grow. He knows he's not a champion like the top two in Paris, so to speak, but he knows he can do well. And above all, he's eager. And he'll have to work hard and get there step by step. Before the Tour, for example, he spent almost a month at altitude with jungles e O'Connor. And getting back to the topic of clear ideas, do you know what he told FranceInfo before the Tour?
«A top ten would be the icing on the cake but it is almost impossible, but a top 15 would already be something very interesting." When you say a sniper!
