After hitting a career high with a stage victory at the Tour de France last month, Hugo Houle has only carried his good run of form forward this month, racing to second overall at the Arctic Race of Norway.
The Canadian finished off the four-day race with third- and fifth-place finishes on the week's toughest pair of stages, jumping up from 19th overall to a podium spot in the process.
On Sunday's final stage in Trondheim, he was part of a chase group behind eventual stage and race winner Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM), but he and his companions – which at one point included three Alpecin-Deceuninck riders – couldn't close the gap.
With a fifth place at 20 seconds behind the Norwegian, Houle sealed second overall at just eight seconds down, having leapfrogged former race leader Victor Lafay in the process. Afterwards, the Israel-Premier Tech leader said that he was very happy with his race.
"If you would've told me I would finish second, I would've signed up for it at the beginning of the race," Houle told Cyclingnews behind the podium in Trondheim.
"I'm really happy with the way I rode, especially today. It was really tight on the GC, with the bonifications being key. I saw an opportunity to attack on the second climb and I decided to go up the road. I saw everyone was looking at each other and then just tried it. We had three Alpecin-Deceuninck guys, they started to pull. I said 'Why not? Let's try it' and played my cards well.
"The rest of the favourites couldn't catch up with us and, had the break stayed together, I'd probably have won the GC."
Houle said he was pleased with how he and his Israel-Premier Tech teammates raced during the week, having said at the start of the race that he hoped they would be aggressive wherever they could.
Behind Houle, the team placed another rider in the overall top 10 as Carl Fredrik Hagen finished ninth, while Krists Neilands took 12th place, the trio sealing a haul of 215 UCI points which won't harm in the battle against WorldTour relegation.
"I'm happy with how we rode. We raced aggressively as a team, everyone was good, I've finished second and I'm happy," Houle said.
"I'm also really happy with how I raced this week. We had a good week. Everyone was good from Israel-Premier Tech. We showed up to race, we did a good show today and raced aggressively."
Now, the challenge for Houle will be to carry his good summer form forward into the autumn, where he'll be racing a series of one-day races, including a long overdue homecoming at the GPs Québec and Montréal.
"There's still some days and some weeks [to go], so now I'll rest a little bit and try to carry that shape for as long as I can. That will be the challenge now to keep it going. I've been good in Suisse, I've been good in the Tour, I've been good here, but I'm human so it's hard to carry that form.
"Of course, I'm motivated to go home. I haven't been home since the Tour de France so everybody will be looking forward to seeing me and I think it's going to be an amazing atmosphere after the races have been away for a few years.
"Really excited to go home and for sure, I will train hard and do what I have to do. I cannot promise that I will go as good as in the Tour, but we will see."
