Tour de France unsung heroes: Hugo Houle wants to win a stage in memory of his brother

Throughout the Tour de France, VeloNews will be talking to some of the unsung heroes in the peloton – those riders that battle on each day without the recognition the major GC favorites or sprint stars receive.

Winning a stage of the Tour de France would be a special moment for any rider, but for Hugo Houle it’s about something else.

For the Canadian, winning a stage is an opportunity to honor his brother Pierrick who was killed by a drunk driver in 2012. He had been studying to be a police officer at the time.

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Every summer, when they were children Houle and his younger brother used to sit down each morning and watch the Tour de France. Pierrik never got a chance to see the race up close and Houle really wants to get a stage win for him.

“That’s my dream, that’s my goal. I would really like to do that because we spent the summer together looking at the Tour de France,” Houle told VeloNews in a video call before the Tour de France. “W when we were younger, we lived in a small village and there was not much to do but we were happy when the Tour came.

Coping with the loss of his brother was an extremely difficult moment for the young Houle, but Pierrik’s memory is often with him now as he works hard to achieve his ambition.

“I would say at first it destroyed me more than it helped but today that’s how I see it drives me to keep pushing in train hard to achieve that,” he said.

Childhood memories and making the Tour de France

Houle and his brother would do a lot together as children, and they took up triathlon at the same time. As they grew up, their tastes in sports differed but they still had a healthy sibling rivalry going.

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“He pushed me a little bit. And then after yeah, I get it stronger so we could not play. As a little brother, I was always beating in training so that he had a tough time with me,” Houle laughed.

“He was a bit like me, we have been to sport together. We’re really close. We started triathlon together. I think when he was nine, I was 12. We raced together, he was faster than me at the beginning.

“It seemed so far away as it was in Europe but it was definitely nice to watch. I remember those long breakaways, and we start to find ourselves some good favorite riders in the ones who were attacking from the breakaway that we could see day after day. It was not looking this, and I didn’t say I want to be friends, it seemed like it was not possible,” he said of watching the Tour de France as a child.

Houle continued to race and in 2010 he eventually put his studies on hold to see what he could do as a cyclist. He turned professional the next year with the Canadian Spidertech team and stepped up into the WorldTour with AG2R-La Mondiale in 2013.

After watching the Tour de France on television for so many years, he made his debut at the race in 2019.

“It was pretty special. I was really happy to be there, especially the start Brussels, there was a crazy amount of people there,” Houle told VeloNews. “It is really nice and unique and I had the chance to live that with one of our sponsors, who’s also from Quebec was my close friend from Premier Tech, who owns the team now.

“It was nice to live with someone from home. There are not many riders from Quebec who have achieved that. So that was a great, a great moment. And also I was really proud that I could have made it. And now it’s the next step, I want to do a result on the Tour, and not just do the Tour.”

Houle is making his third consecutive appearance after returning for a second ride last year, where he thoroughly enjoyed sticking it to the other GC teams during the chaotic crosswinds of stage 5 to Privas. Houle managed to get his team leader safely through the stage without losing any time.

“I have good memories of when we had a good crosswind last year and we could really make a difference,” he said. “I had to ride really hard in front and make the selection, and have a big impact on the race. Also, the day that I got the breakaway for the first time and almost a stage victory on stage 12, where I finished seventh in the end.

“Those two moments last year I had some really good emotions on the bike, and I was happy to have an impact on the race. It has given me some motivation for this year.”