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Hugo Houle’s 13th in Tirreno-Adriatico GC is career high in a WorldTour stage race

Pogačar wins first Neptune's trident trophy

Photo by: Sirotti

On Tuesday Hugo Houle achieved a career high mark in WorldTour stage race general classification after Tirreno-Adriatico’s concluding 10-km time trial. He began the day in 13th overall, and his time of 11:58 allowed him to keep his spot and finish as Astana-Premier Tech’s best-placed rider.

Houle’s previous best WorldTour stage race GC result was 23rd in the 2019 Paris-Nice. He was also 24th in both the 2017 BinckBank Tour and last season’s Tour of Poland.

Tadej Pogačar, fourth on the day, defended his race lead from the stage winner Wout Van Aert, and the Slovenian hoisted his first Neptune’s trident trophy in San Benedetto del Tronto. The Tour de France title holder has won two of the first three 2021 WorldTour stage races. Second place is Van Aert’s career best WorldTour stage race result as well.

After eight consecutive time trial victories, Ineos Grenadiers’ chrono ace Filippo Ganna was defeated by Van Aert, who was fastest with a time of 11:06. Mikel Landa (Spain/Bahrain-Victorious) held off Ganna’s teammate Egan Bernal to round out the final podium.

The tentative lineup of March 23’s one-day WorldTour race Brugge-De Panne lists Houle, his teammate and compatriot Ben Perry, and Guillaume Boivin–127th overall at Tirreno-Adriatico–on the start line. Pogačar and Landa are penciled in to contest WorldTour stage race Itzulia Basque Country in early April, while Van Aert will defend his Milan-San Remo title on Saturday.

2021 Tirreno-Adriatico Stage 7
1) Wout Van Aert (Belgium/Jumbo-Visma) 11:06
2) Stephen Küng (Switzerland/Groupama-FDJ) +0:06
3) Filippo Ganna (Italy/Ineos Grenadiers) +0:11
44) Hugo Houle (Canada/Astana-Premier Tech) +0:52
113) Guillaume Boivin (Canada/Israel Start-up Nation) +1:30

2021 Tirreno-Adriatico Final GC
1) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) 26:36:16
2) Wout Van Aert (Belgium/Jumbo-Visma) +1:03
3) Mikel Landa (Spain/Bahrain-Victorious) +3:57
13) Hugo Houle (Canada/Astana-Premier Tech) +12:06
127) Guillaume Boivin (Canada/Israel Start-up Nation) +1:06:33