After a completely crazy day on Friday when he finished third in the 13th stage of the Tour de France, Hugo Houle (Israel – Premier Tech) took advantage of Saturday to support three of his teammates who took part in the escape of the day.
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“It was a tough fight at the start. I helped Michael Woods, Jakob Fuglsang and Krists Neilands into the breakaway and felt that at three they wouldn’t need my help. I followed the peloton afterwards to compensate for my day on Friday”, explained Hugo Houle, 62nd of the day (21 minutes 50 seconds).
Fuglsang was ultimately Israel–Premier Tech’s best representative, finishing sixth, 58 seconds behind the winner.
Britain’s Michael Matthews (BikeExchange – Jayco) won the 14th stage of the Tour by distancing Italian Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost, 15 seconds) about 2 kilometers from the finish line. Frenchman Thibaut Pinot, teammate of Antoine Duchesne at Groupama-FDJ finished third (34 seconds).
Duchesne finished in 56th place, in the same group as Hugo Houle. Guillaume Boivin (Israel – Premier Tech) finished the day in 121st place (24 minutes 26 seconds).
No change in the provisional general classification while the Dane Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) still holds a lead of 2 minutes 22 seconds over the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates) with still seven stages to go in the Grande Boucle.
The Tour will continue on Sunday with a long stage of 202.5 kilometers between Rodez and Carcassonne.
