The first week of the Tour de France saw many expected winners: the title champion Tadej Pogacar has already won two stages to add to his career in the race career, while Mathieu Van der Poel won his first stage since 2021 and a rivalry is developing between the two fastest sprinters, Jonathan Milan and Tim Merlier, while they are fighting for the supramation of The Fart.
But at the end of the opening week – in fact 10 days, the first day of rest falling after stage 10 – there was a completely unexpected rider firing on the leader’s yellow jersey, moving Pogacar himself.
Ben Healy won the sixth stage of Bayeux to Vire Normandie and his brilliant tour continued with a third place on stage 10, from Ennezat to Mont-Dore Puy de Sancy in the Massif Central, enough to get the race advance at the expense of the best rider in the world and the triple champion. The 24 -year -old has made history as the only fourth Irish to wear yellow, and the first since Stephen Roche in 1987.
But who is Healy, and what did his career look like so far?
Irishman Healy was born and grew up near Birmingham, but chose to represent the country of its paternal grandparents of Waterford and Cork origin, and races with Irish stripes on its sleeves thanks to a former national road race champion.
The 24 -year -old was cycling and mountain biking of the first age and spent several years in adolescence with various teams of British clubs, including the Wiggins Le Col team, which also counted Tom Pidcock among its ranks. At the age of 18, he became the youngest winner of the Tour de l’Avenir scene, renowned as a race in small groups for future stars.
By driving for Trinity Racing, he won consecutive victories in the under-time under 23 and a road race for men at the Irish national championships in 2020, before three podium places at the Baby Giro, a Giro style race in Italia for those under 23, including a victory on the final scene.
In 2022, he went to Worldtour level, the highest level of elite cycling, joining the American Squad EF Education-Easypost. Another time of time victory in the Irish national championships followed that year, as well as a bronze in the road race.
2023 was to prove his year of escape. The Ardennes classics have proven to be a happy hunting ground for the 22-year-old man, while he obtained a second place in Brabante Pijl and Amstel Gold before missing a podium in Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
He won the Irish Elite men’s road race in the Nationals the same year, but really broke into the stage with a 50 km solo victory in the Italia Giro. Healy spent 196 km in total in escape the eight stadium, from Terni to La Fossombrone, a punchy and hilly scene with three categorized climbs, before dropping her companions to finish with an advantage of almost two minutes. It was his first victory on stage of the Grand Tour, during his beginnings during a three -week race.
Last year, he recorded a TOP-10 at the Olympic Raper on the Road in Paris as well as seventh place at the World Championships in Zurich, while other Top 10 followed the classics this year: third in Liege-Bastogne-Liege, fourth in Amstel Bianche, fifth in Fleche-Wallonne and 10th in Amstel Gold.
His victory in the Giro indicated both his pedigree but also his favorite way of racing: at his total pace all day, riding weaker runners from his wheel, before moving away from the long -range solo attacks. He also took a second place in Giro stage 15 in the same year, in the same way.
And that’s exactly how he won his first victory at the Tour de France last week: escaping from an escape from eight men before dropping his companions on the climb with 42 km to get on stage six. Despite the caliber of climbers in the prosecution group, he continued to build his advantage, ending with 2,44 ”on his nearest pursuer, Quinn Simmons.
“It’s really incredible,” said EF Education-Esypost rider. “This is what I worked not only this year, but really really, it’s really incredible, hours and hours of hard work of so many people and reimbursing them today is really incredible.
“It was a scene that I had surrounded in the book from the start and doing it in the first is incredible.”
Its aerodynamic shape and its explosive kick on difficult ascents make it an obvious choice to enter a break, as well as well placed to succeed when the gradient rises as a climb.
Now, he leads the 29 -inch Tour de France on Tadej Pogacar, as well as the best classification of the young riders of 1’29 ”on the Belgian superstar Remco Evenepoel, which finished third in the general classification of the Tour de France last year.
“It is really beyond the belief, if someone had told me that I would be in yellow and that I would have won a scene on the tour, the first day of rest too, I would not have believed you,” said the Irishman afterwards.
“I played a little. I had the victory on stage at the bank, and how often do you have the opportunity to put you in yellow, so I felt that I had to take this and really go. ”
