For the dead brother: tearful victory at the Tour de France

At the moment of his greatest success, Hugo Houle was only thinking about one thing - his brother Pierrick. After his solo ride with an emotional victory on the 16th stage of the 109th Tour de France, the 31-year-old Canadian raised his right index finger to the sky before tears came to his eyes during the winner's interview. “I had a dream to win a stage for my dead brother. This is for him, I've been waiting for this for years. It means a lot to me,” said Houle, visibly moved.

For Houle it was also the first victory as a professional cyclist and the first success of a Canadian in the most important cycling race in the world in 34 years, when Steve Bauer won. “I've never won a race before, it's the perfect place to win,” Houle said.

After reaching the finish, Hugo Houle was overcome by his emotions. © APA/afp / MARCO BERTORELLO

But above all, for him it was a matter of the heart with great symbolic value. As children, he and his younger brother watched the tour every year, every day. “We spent the summer together watching the Tour de France,” Houle said before the start of the tour. “When we were younger we lived in a small village and there wasn't much to do, but we were happy when the tour came.” Christmas 2012 turned into a nightmare But then one moment during Christmas 2012 changed everything. His brother, who was training to be a police officer, was jogging when he was hit and killed by a drunk driver. When he didn't come home, Houle looked for him and found him lying alone on the street - the perpetrator had committed a hit-and-run. “I would say at the beginning it destroyed me more. But today the way I look at it is that it drives me to keep training hard to achieve this,” Houle said.

Canadian Hugo Houle secured a surprise victory. © ANSA / YOAN VALAT

His brother never had the opportunity to come to Europe and follow the tour live. “It's bad for me that he was never able to see all of this. That’s why I really want to achieve that before I quit,” Houle said. Now his big lifelong dream has become reality. That's what else happened on Tuesday Meanwhile, the fight for overall victory remains exciting. Almost as expected, Tadej Pogacar went into attack mode, although without success. Jonas Vingegaard showed no weakness on the 16th stage over 178,5 kilometers from Carcassonne to Foix and remains on course for victory and in yellow - 2:22 minutes ahead of Pogacar. Vingegaard was attacked a few times on the penultimate climb of Pogacar, but was always in control of the situation. Both reached the goal almost six minutes later. The showdown will now take place at the mountain arrivals in Peyragudes and Hautacam on Wednesday and Thursday.

But in the duel for yellow, the stars of the scene are increasingly losing their most important trump cards. After Vingegaard lost the two noble helpers Primoz Roglic and Steven Kruijswijk on Sunday, Pogacar is now threatened with losing his third helper Marc Soler. The Spaniard had to vomit during the stage, visited the tour doctor several times and fought his way up the mountains just before the broom wagon.

Football

Italy

International leagues

International

Winter sports

Tennis

Other sports

Motorsport

Cycling

Watersports

Events

Favorites

For the dead brother: tearful victory at the Tour de France

The fight for the podium in the Tour de France came to a head at the start of the Pyrenees trilogy on Tuesday. But on Tuesday the stage belonged to an athlete who celebrated one of the most emotional victories in the history of the Tour.

Suggestions

Comments (0)