Valentin Paret-Peintre taken under the wing of Mikel Landa since Quick-Step signing: "There's already a little relationship... I can learn a lot from him"

Heading into 2025, one of the big pre-season signings for Soudal - Quick-Step was the acquisition of Valentin Paret-Peintre from the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team in a bid to bolster the climbing ranks of the Wolfpack. Already he's made a big impression too, winning a stage of the Tour of Oman en route to a 2nd overall finish.

"It's true that it was a good start to the season. It was my first time at the Tour of Oman, and I really enjoyed the race," the 24-year-old Frenchman reflects of his Soudal - Quick-Step debut, in conversation with Cyclism'Actu. "I knew I had a good feeling. We did two training camps with Soudal - Quick-Step in January, which allowed us to have almost 20 days of training in Spain. I knew that the condition was good and that I could expect a good result. After that, to beat Adam Yates on the last stage, I didn't really expect it, but I felt good and that's it."

Although supporting Remco Evenepoel at the Grand Tours is expected to be one of Paret-Peintre's primary roles following arrival, the December training crash of the Belgian has actually seen Mikel Landa emerge as the rider to take Quick-Step's new signing under his wing. "We didn't see each other much because he wasn't there during the December or January internship. We did a bit of an administrative internship in October. We met, we talked a bit, but since then, we haven't talked much," Paret-Peintre says of his relationship with Evenepoel, marking a stark contrast to the one he as developed with Landa.

"When I joined the team, I thought a lot about Mikel Landa's presence. When I did video calls with the team, we also talked a lot about the fact that Landa was there and that he shared a lot of his experience. That played a big part in my decision," he explains. "Then, on the schedule, I didn't have much 'decision-making power', but I'm very happy to be with Mikel. I was in a room with him during the training camp in December. We get along very well. There's already a little 'relationship', if you can call it that, that has been created. We send each other messages, everything is going well. I think that with his experience, I can learn a lot from him."

And the Frenchman is content with his predominantly supportive role for Landa in the coming months too. "For the Giro d'Italia and the upcoming races like Tirreno or the Volta a Catalunya, it will really be around Mikel," concludes the 24-year-old climbing talent. "But that doesn't mean that if I feel I'm in good shape, I'm going to sit up three kilometres away because I've finished my work with Mikel. I could very well carry on and get a good overall classification for myself, even if that's not the priority at all. The priority is really to be with Mikel and to do the work for him."