Vingegaard retains Tour de France lead as Canada’s Houle rules stage 16

FOIX, France: Canadian rider Hugo Houle broke down in tears after winning stage 16 of the Tour de France on Tuesday, dedicating his first professional triumph to his late brother. Jonas Vingegaard of Jumbo retained the overall lead from defending champion Tadej Pogacar and Geraint Thomas of Ineos as the Tour entered the Pyrenees. But the day belonged to 31-year-old Houle, riding for the Israel-Premier Tech team, as the rider from Quebec triumphed in the sweltering heatwave which has swept France. “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. “It was my dream to win a stage of the Tour de France since he left us,” added 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 1600m. A group of eight broke away, passing a Canadian Mountie in full uniform, boding well for lead rider Houle who slipped his rivals on the 25km swoop downhill to a baking 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.

It was a great day for Colombian veteran