Hugo Houle (Israel – Premier Tech) once once more demonstrated the extent of his talent on Sunday during the 15th stage of the Tour de France by finishing the 202.5 kilometer event in 14th place, in the leading group.
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It was the heat that caught the attention of the athlete from Sainte-Perpétue and that of the vast majority of cyclists who were in action on Sunday, an average heat of 36.4 degrees Celsius with a peak of 40 degrees at one certain time during the day. A temperature that Houle had never experienced before.
“There were a few attacks at the start, but with the heat, I decided to stay in the peloton in the end. The highlight is really that, the heat, I felt like I was in an oven, I had to constantly fetch water. I have never cycled in such intense heat,” said Hugo Houle in an interview with Sportcom.
“There was a very steep climb in the final, I managed to hold on. I had fun sprinting at the very end! I knew that there were very big names in front of me, I preferred to have fun and enjoy it.
800m from the finish line, the peloton managed to catch Frenchman Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis) who had escaped alone a little earlier. The fight was hot between Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Mads Pedersen (Trek – Segafredo) and Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deuceninck) for the stage victory. It was finally Philipsen who won the first victory of his career in the Tour de France.
Antoine Duchesne (Groupama-FDJ) finished 72nd (+36 seconds) while Guillaume Boivin (Israel – Premier Tech) took 127th place (+17 minutes 16 seconds).
Among the Quebec teammates, David Gaudu of Groupama-FDJ managed to finish the 15th stage in 21st place, in the leading group, he remains eighth in the provisional general classification which is still dominated by the Dane Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) . As for Jakob Fuglsang from Israel – Premier Tech, he crashed heavily on Sunday and suffered a rib injury, he was still able to finish the stage, but his case will be reassessed daily.
The cyclists will enjoy a well-deserved day off on Monday before tackling the final boulder of the Tour de France on Tuesday with stage 16 between Carcassonne and Foix.
