Hugo Houle bound for 99th edition of the Giro d’Italia
A major change in his program means that instead of racing the Tour of California, Houle will be riding his second Giro d’Italia in May.
A major change in Hugo Houle’s program means that instead of racing the Tour of California, the Sainte-Perpétue, Que., native will be participating in his second Giro d’Italia in May. Ag2r-La Mondiale, Houle’s WorldTour team, was not invited to participate by the organizers of the 11th edition of the Amgen Tour of California. Houle is aiming for a spot on Canada’s men’s road team for the Rio Olympics and thus needed to find an alternate way to prepare himself.
The change has forced Houle to modify his program for the coming weeks. “The idea came out of discussions with my teammate Jean-Christophe Péraud during the sixth stage of Tirreno-Adriatico,” said Houle. “I asked him what he would do in my place to properly prepare for the Olympics. His response was to race the Giro.” Hugo did not have to think long and resolved to travel to the three-week Italian Grand Tour to help Péraud and Dominico Pozzovivo achieve their general classification ambitions. After Houle had a brief discussion with his sports directeur following the stage, they agreed to add the Giro to his 2016 race schedule. He will ride in a supporting role for his teammates while building his form for the Olympics. Péraud, an elder statesmen of the pro peloton at 37 years old, finished second in the GC at the Tour de France in 2014.
Houle is currently racing the Spring Classics and will take a break following Paris-Roubaix to return to Québec. He will then participate in a climbing-heavy training camp before returning to Europe for the Giro.
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In July, Houle will race the Tour of Poland and the Classica San Sebastien, races that were already scheduled in his program. He then hopes to travel to Rio for the Olympics.
The 99th edition of the Giro d’Italia gets underway on May 6 with three stages in the Netherlands.This year’s course includes three individual time trials, six mountain-top finishes and a tough final week that will decide the GC. The race’s first stage is a 10-km TT in Apeldoorn, Netherlands. The Giro also includes a 10-km TT up l’Alpe di Siusi that averages 8 per cent on the 15th stage. In 2015, Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) won the Giro ahead of the Astana duo of Fabio Aru and Mikel Landa, who now rides for Team Sky.
