Hugo Houle became the first Canadian in 34 years to win a stage of the Tour de France ©Getty Images

Israel-Premier Tech rider Hugo Houle has become only the second Canadian to win a stage of the Tour de France, perfecting a breakaway to claim victory on the 16th day of competition in Foix today.

Prior to today, the only rider from Canada to have claimed a Tour de France stage victory was Steve Bauer, doing so in 1988.

Houle made a solo attack on the final category-one climb of Mur de Péguère, with more than 30 kilometres to go on the 178.5km route from Carcassonne.

When he reached the summit of the climb, Houle had a 26-second lead.

His compatriot and team-mate Michael Woods and American Matteo Jorgenson of Movistar attempted to chase Houle, but could not keep contact.

Houle crossed the line in 4 hours 23min 47sec, with French rider Valentin Madouas of Groupama-FDJ and Woods finishing 1:10 down.

Jorgenson was two seconds further back in fourth and Australian Michael Storer of Groupama-FDJ was fifth.

The Canadian paid tribute to his brother, who died 10 years ago, in the post-race interview.

There are no changes in the top three of the general classification as Denmark's Vingegaard of Jumbo-Visma continues to have a 2:22 lead over Slovenian Tadej Pogačar of UAE Team Emirates, the two-time defending champion of the Tour de France.

Britain's Geraint Thomas of Ineos Grenadiers is still 2:43 behind Vingegaard.

There are five stages of this year's Tour still to come.