Hugo Houle looks back at TT win and ahead to Pan Am Games road race
The day after Hugo Houle rode to gold at the Pan Games time trial race, the pro rider looked back on his achievement. But he still had more work to do. Two days later, he, Guillaume Boivin, Rémi Pelletier-Roy and Sean Mackinnon would ride in the Games’ 165-km road race. Ahead of the road race, Houle discussed the strengths of his team, some of the competition and his ideas on how the race might play out on the streets of Toronto.
On the time trial win
I feel really good. I came here as one of the favourites for time trial. I put a lot of pressure on myself to do a good result. Yesterday, I had really good legs. I delivered a good ride, probably the fastest ride of my life. It’s pretty good it happened on that day. I’ve really enjoyed my time here in Toronto for the Pan Am.
On the competition at the road race
It’s hard to predict what’s going to happen because there are small teams, four riders. I think the Colombians are the favourites because they have [Fernando] Gaviria, who is a fast sprinter. He beat Cavendish at [Tour of] San Luis a couple of times.
On the shape of the race
It’s always a random show at the beginning. Everybody is attacking, and you’re just trying to figure it out, whether to follow or not. Experience is going to play a big game there. Hopefully we have to good guys in the good break or a good number at the end. We’ll see how it goes.
You can’t control the race with just four guys. Nobody can control the race. That’s why I say I don’t know how it’s going to play out. For sure there’s going to be attack after attack. But then, people are going to crack. I think you are also going to have a big gap between the best guy and the last guy, so the field could become pretty small pretty quick. Who’s going to ride? Who’s going to control? Who knows?
On his teammates
We have to be smart, how we play our cards. We’ve got four good riders. Guillaume is the sprinter, but we’ll see how it goes. In the end, he can give the big push. Me and Rémi Pelletier-Roy can go in the breakway, and from there we have a pretty good sprint if we come with a small group. Sean has also shown that he’s a strong guy. If he gets in the move, he can also do something. We’re going to see how it goes. I’m sure we can do something good.
I raced with Remi, when I raced with Louis Garneau a couple of years ago. I was with Guillaume on SpiderTech. We’ve all done projects together in the past. We know each other pretty well. We’re all here for the same goal: to get a medal. We’re ready to work as a team.
