Hugo Houle played it safe on the 17e stage of the Tour de France, Wednesday.
On a breakaway for the fourth consecutive road stage, the Israel-Premier Tech (IPT) cyclist did not insist in a group of around forty riders who included several climbers who were well placed overall, such as Simon Yates (Jayco, 2e stage), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain, 3e) or Jai Hindley (Bora, 12e).
Anyway, the forcing operated by Jonas Vingegaard’s Jumbo, who never left the fugitives more than three minutes, stifled any offensive inclination in this stage with 5145 m of elevation gain.
“In addition, with the strong start, it’s the new classic of Jumbo-Visma, noted Houle. They want to ride all the passes as fast as possible to weaken [Tadej] Pogacar. The wonderful problem for us is that we have to follow them… And since it has been working well for two years in a row, in my opinion, they will do the same next year…”
“Without sights” for the day’s stage, Houle joined the breakaway to give himself a little lead in the Col de la Loze, which he had discovered with the rest of the peloton in 2020 (victory for his teammate Miguel Ángel López). Two IPT accompanied him on Wednesday: the Latvian Krists Neilands, picked up a little before him, and the Australian Nick Schultz, 23e on arrival after a rather discreet Tour.
Dropped towards the end of the previous climb, Houle returned to the lead after a descent at full speed. “I’m sometimes a little lazy: I’d rather get off the hook a little and catch them on the descent, than fight a little more [pour basculer avec le groupe] ! My plan worked. »
The 32-year-old Quebecer adopted his own rhythm from the foot of Loze, in which he had “mass juice”. Forty-third at the top, 25 min 16 s behind the winner Felix Gall (AG2R), he now points to 48e rank of general (+2 h 41 min 34 s).
“A little less in the legs than last year”, because of his cold last week, Houle still feels in the game. Stages 19 and 20, Friday and Saturday, could represent opportunities.