Canadian rider Hugo Houle on Tuesday broke down in tears after winning stage 16 of the Tour de France, dedicating his first professional triumph to his late brother.
Jonas Vingegaard of Jumbo-Visma retained the overall lead from defending champion Tadej Pogacar and Geraint Thomas of Ineos Grenadiers as the Tour entered the Pyrenees.
However, the day belonged to 31-year-old Houle, riding for the Israel-Premier Tech team, as the rider from Quebec triumphed in the sweltering heat wave that has swept France.
Photo: AFP
“It sounds incredible, but I know my brother helped me,” said an emotional Houle of his younger sibling Pierrik who was killed by a hit-and-run driver a decade ago.
“He went to run in the snow and was hit and left dead by the roadside. It took me three hours to find him,” Houle said.
“It was my dream to win a stage of the Tour de France since he left us,” said Houle, who had started competing in triathlon with his brother before devoting himself to cycling.
Shortly after leaving the baking stone citadel at Carcassonne the 149 remaining riders of the 172 that embarked from Copenhagen began to climb into cooler territory with the stage reaching an altitude of 1,600m.
A group of eight broke away, passing a Canadian Mountie in full uniform, which bode well for lead rider Houle, who slipped his rivals on the 25km swoop downhill to the finish line at Foix on the banks of the Ariege river.
As he had promised, the 23-year-old Slovenian Pogacar attacked relentlessly, shortly after leaving the plains for the first of three days in the mountains between France and Spain.
Dane Vingegaard skipped up and rode in his tailwind every time, while Ineos never once tried to get either Thomas or Adam Yates out ahead.
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