Ben Healy may have been away from racing for the best part of two months, but it hasn’t taken him long to put in a scorching ride as he builds towards the Worlds (Photo: Rini Kools)
Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) has given himself very few race days as he builds towards the road race at the UCI World Road Championships tomorrow week. But it’s starting to look like he’s timing his run very well.
After winning a stage at the Tour de France in July, and taking the yellow jersey, Healy has just returned to racing, after seven weeks away from the peloton. And today he took a result suggesting he’s already in very good condition.
He finished on the podium on the stage 4 TT at Tour de Luxembourg, with one of the best results of his career against the watch. And while he may be out of the general classification hunt, after losing time yesterday, today’s performane is very encouraging for the Irish rider.
The 26.3km TT in Niederanven was won by British champion Ethan Hayter (Soudal-QuickStep) by 28 seconds from new race leader Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates). Then came Healy, in 3rd at 57 seconds, on a day of big gaps through the field in the test.
Healy will ride just the road race for Ireland at the Worlds as his team mate, Darren Rafferty and Ryan Mullen (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) will represent Ireland in the elite men’s TT in Kigali tomorrow.
Healy had already spoken earlier in the season of the Rwanda Worlds being a big goal for 2025 and his team boss, Jonathan Vaughters, said after the Tour the team was supporting him with those ambitions.
The elite men’s race will be run over 267.5km – with 5,400m of climbing – in Kigali on September 28th on a course between 1,400m and 1,765m above sea level.