Canadian Hugo Holly won the 16th stage of the Tour de France in a solo breakout, with Denmark’s Jonas Weinggaard maintaining his overall lead.
The German Leonard Kamna, who had a cold, the Frenchman Michael Cheryl and Aurelien Barrett-Pinter, as well as the German Max Walshed, did not start the stage, as well as the Danish Jacob Vogelsang due to a rib fracture.
After Monday, four classified climbs waited 178.5 km starting in Carcassonne, including two Category 1 mountains in the last 60 km, before descending to Foix. At the opening of the final week in the Pyrenees, thirty people took part in the 31-degree heat, including Russian Alexander Vlasov, who was ten and a half minutes behind in the overall standings.
Because of this, the field could not leave the escape far on the stage with a level difference of more than 3100 meters, but the leading group still gained an eight-minute advantage. Final stage winner Holly left his rivals on the final climb to claim his third professional victory after two Canadian time trial titles, battling tears in the heat. The 31-year-old competitor managed to celebrate as the second Canadian in the Tour de France, and his team, Steve Power, who serves as athletic director at Israel-Premier Tech, won in 1988.
After an amazing 40km solo effort, 🇨🇦 Tweet embed He got his first ever Tour win!
📺 Here is another KM
Avec une course en solitaire de plus de 40km, 🇨🇦 Tweet embed This is the place for you!
📺 revival of Le Dernier KM!# TDF2022 | Tweet embed pic.twitter.com/sfs2G7XhfA
– Tour de France™ (LeTour) July 19, 2022
French Valentin Maduas was second, his teammate Michael Woods third, and American Matthew Jorgensen fourth.
In the group of contenders, Slovenian Tadej Pogakar, who has won in the last two competitions, attacked twice on the penultimate climb and once on the next slope, but Vinggaard in the yellow jersey managed to keep up without any problems. Britain’s third-placed Geraint Thomas dropped twice but managed to catch up, while France’s Romain Bardet slipped from fourth after winning more than three minutes over his rivals. Because of the high speed on the last hill, there were no more starts, so the differences between those who made it to the finish line by six minutes didn’t change. Vlasov advanced to eighth, taking four minutes.
It belongs to the chronicle of the stage when Mark Soler, one of Pogacar’s important lieutenants on the mountain, fell ill and covered most of the distance on his own with great delay.
Stage 16, Carcassonne Foix, 178.5 km:
1. Hugo Houle (Canada, Israel-Premier Tech) 4:23:47
2. Valentin Maduas (France, Groupama-FDJ) is late 1:10 min
3. Michael Woods (Canada, Israel-Premier Tech) at the same time
Leading group in the complex:
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark, Jumbo-Visma) 64:28:09
2. Tadej Pojákár (Slovenia, UAE) was late 2:22
3. Geraint Thomas (Great Britain, Ineos Grenadies) 2:43 p.
On Wednesday, 130 kilometers from Saint-Gaudens and the mountain end in Peyragudes awaits the Tour de France 109 arena, covering a total of 3,328 kilometers until it reaches the traditional finish on the Champs-Elysees in Paris on Sunday.
