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Houle’s best ever WorldTour stage race finish part of Astana’s great day

Fuglsang and Jon Izagirre earn stage wins in France and Italy

March 17, 2019
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Canadian Hugo Houle came 38th in Sunday’s final stage of Paris-Nice to finish 23rd overall, his best WorldTour stage race GC placing. Houle eclipsing his 2017 BinckBank Tour career best by one spot was part of Astana’s fantastic day. In just over four minutes, Astana won Sunday’s stages of Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico, the parallel-running WorldTour stage races. Jon Izagirre triumphed in Paris-Nice and Jakob Fuglsang earned the flowers in Stage 5 of Tirreno-Adriatico.

Canadian Hugo Houle took 21st place into the last stage of Paris-Nice. He was part of a 37-rider breakaway that formed between the first and second of six categorized climbs. On the fourth climb, Nairo Quintana lit out on a bid for glory, as he was 46-seconds behind fellow Colombian Egan Bernal at the top of the GC. From Quintana’s small group, Izagirre skipped away on the final climb. Quintana ended up only pulling two-seconds, and stood second on the final podium with Sky duo Bernal and Michal Kwiatkowski.

Tirreno-Adriatico‘s Day 5 was a frantic stage marked by short, very steep climbs. Jakob Fuglsang won his second race of the year after the GC of the Ruta del Sol. The previous day, Astana’s Alexey Lutsenko took the victory. Second to Fuglsang on the day, race leader Adam Yates gained time over second place Primoz Roglic before the Tuesday’s 10-km time trial finale. Yates leads Roglic by 25-seconds. Fuglsang is in third +0:35 in arrears.

2019 Paris-Nice Final GC
1) Egan Bernal (Sky/Colombia) 29:17:02
2) Nairo Quintana (Colombia/Movistar) +0:39
3) Michal Kwiatskowski (Poland/Sky) +1:03
4) Jack Haig (Australia/Mitchelton-Scott) +1:21
5) Romain Bardet (France/AG2R) +1:45
23) Hugo Houle (Canada/Astana) +15:20

2019 Tirreno-Adriatico GC After Stage 5
1) Adam Yates (Great Britain/Mitchelton-Scott) 20:33:48
2) Primoz Roglic (Slovenia/Jumbo-Visma) +0:25
3) Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark/Astana) +0:35
4) Tom Dumoulin (The Netherlands/Sunweb) +1:55
5) Julian Alaphilippe (France/Deceuninck-Quick Step) +2:34