Paret-Peintre emulates brother with Stage 10 win as Pogacar cruises in pink

A day that started amid the Roman remains of Pompeii almost ended with a Romain Bardet victory – but the French veteran found himself outclimbed by a young compatriot who idolised him as a teenager. Valentin Paret-Peintre (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) took the first win of his professional career in style with a memorable solo win in the third summit finish of the Giro d’Italia at Bocca di Selva.

One year after his older brother, Aurelien, won a stage on the Giro, Paret-Peintre junior left his own mark on the race with a flawless performance in the undulating 142km Stage 10. After both brothers featured in the day’s break, Valentin combined well with Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) to reel in lone leader Jan Tratnik (Visma-Lease a Bike) inside the final few kilometres before striking out on his own in pursuit of glory.

Bardet crossed the line over the summit 30 seconds down in second place to move back into the top 10 of the general classification while missing out on the chance of completing a clean sweep of stage victories in all three of cycling’s Grand Tours.

Italy’s Andrea Bagioli (Lidl-Trek) took fourth place before Aurelien Paret-Peintre celebrated his brother’s win with a punch of the air as he led home the next group of escapees for fifth.

Paret-Peintre’s victory was a 15th of the season for the revitalised Decathlon AG2A La Mondiale team, whose leader Ben O’Connor led a group of race favourites – including the pink jersey Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) – over the finish line around three minutes in arrears.

After a largely uneventful day in the saddle, Slovenia’s Pogacar kept his power dry to retain his 2:40 lead over Colombian Dami Martinez (Bora-Hansgrohe) with Welsh veteran Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) a further 18 seconds back in third and Australia’s O’Connor in fourth at 3:39.

Belgium’s Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma-Lease a Bike) retained the white jersey and protected his fifth place but dropped 13 seconds back to 4:15 after being caught out in a split in the closing moments of the decisive climb. Bardet rose seven places to seventh place at 4:57 while another Italian who starred in the day’s large 27-man breakaway, Filippo Zana (Jayco-AlUla) also rose four places to ninth.