At the moment of his greatest success, Hugo Houle was only thinking about one thing – his brother Pierrick.
After his solo ride with the 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. It’s for him, I’ve waited for years for it. It means a lot to me,” said Houle, visibly moved.
It was also Houle’s first win as a professional cyclist and the first win by a Canadian in the world’s most important cycling race in 34 years when Steve Bauer won. “I’ve never won a race, it’s the perfect place to win,” said Houle.
But above all it was an affair of the heart for him with great symbolic value. As children, he and his younger brother had followed the tour every year, every day. “We spent the summer together watching the Tour de France,” Houle said before the tour started. “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 along.”
But then one moment during Christmas 2012 changed everything. His brother, who was doing police training, 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 in the street – the perpetrator had committed a hit and run. “I would say at first it devastated me more. But today the way I see it is that it drives me to keep training hard to achieve that,” said Houle.
His brother never had the opportunity to come to Europe and watch the tour live. “It’s bad for me that he never got to see all that, so I really want to achieve that before I quit,” said Houle. Now his big dream has come true.