Ben Healy explains to stickybottle how he really put a significant emphasis on working on himself over the winter, including changing his approach to racing (Photo: Naike Ereñozaga Orue)

Known for his attacking style, which has already landed significant success, Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) has told stickybottle about how he has worked hard this season, and through the winter, to hone his approach to racing.

Though some of those preparations have been obvious, like racing less in the build up the Ardennes Classics, other changes, and work undertaken, has all been happening behind the scenes, including video analysis.

Now aged 24 years, Healy also told us how he is looking forward to the Tour de France – setting out his goals for that race – and towards having a “proper” go at the Worlds in Rwanda for Team Ireland.

When asked, he said he believed his step up in top tier success this year – including his first monument podium at Liège-Bastogne-Liège (1.UWT) – hasn’t come about because he has significantly improved as an athlete over the last 12 to 24 months. Rather, he has significantly changed how he approaches his racing and has married that with some physical improvements as an athlete.

Healy tracks the UAE Team Emirates-XRG riders on his way to 4th at Strade Bianche back in March, the first in what would become a series of big results in World Tour races in the spring (Photo: Fabio Ferrari-La Presse)

“For sure, I’ve been steadily getting better year-on-year,” said Healy, now in his fourth season as a World Tour rider. “But it’s not massively in leaps and bounds, it’s a few percent here and there and understanding how to prepare better. And it’s all the little things around the races as well. I think I’m not hugely better as a rider than I was two years ago… Maybe a little bit.”

Precision racing in 2025

Healy was with the Trinity Racing team, racing as an U23 rider, when the pandemic hit in 2020, also impacting the 2021 season. While mountains were moved to postpone major pro races and run them later in the year, including the Grand Tours, many of the U23 events Healy would have been riding were simply cancelled.

And though some of his peers were already in World Tour teams, he was still racing the U23 scene, rather not racing it very often. In 2020, for example, he did just 16 race days.

He insisted he was not making a big deal out of missing races in those key development seasons. But he believed he had missed many development opportunities and had been catching up a little in recent seasons.

“I’m having to do that on the fly, I guess,” he said of his learning and developing catch-up. “And that was a massive emphasis that I put into myself this winter. I was reviewing race footage and trying to understand the mistakes that I’ve made in the past with races.

“And I’ve tried to be really present in a race as well because I often see the ‘red mist’, I guess, and go a bit crazy. I’ve tried to rein that in a bit this year. But I’ve still tried not to lose what makes me successful, or what I believe makes me successful; the attacking nature and putting myself on the front foot, these sorts of things.

“But I’ve really just tried to be as smart as possible when I do that, and the timing of that. And I’ve been trying to think through some racing scenarios, and how to play things, beforehand as well.”

Healy on the podium at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the first career podium result in a monument (Photo: Pauline Ballet)

He cites two recent examples. When Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) attacked on La Redoute at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Healy was right at the front with his team mate, in accordance with his pre-race strategy. He didn’t go crazy chasing the Slovenian, instead taking his time to get away in a chasing group. He then went on to sprint for 2nd place, and ultimately finish 3rd.

And at La Flèche Wallonne (1.UWT), he played ‘Captain Sensible’ again. When the race hit the foot of the Mur de Huy for the final ascent to the line, Healy eased himself to the front. And as Pogačar attacked, Healy didn’t see the red mist.

Instead of responding, he stuck to his plan or riding his own effort up the climb – going long with steady effort – and took 5th. He believed that was the best he could have done on a really short and steep climbing finish not ideally suited to him.

He told stickybottle that, as a team, EF Education-EasyPost did a lot of work for him to keep him in position on the rapid approach to La Redoute at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. It was agreed they would be at the front starting the climb and ride hard up it, rather than responding if Pogačar decided to hit the “nuclear” button, which he did.

In both races, Healy plotted out a pre-race plan with his team and stuck to it; a far crying from riding too aggressively – maybe too early or in the wrong places – but still being aggressive, riding his own race and taking big results.

Enjoying his victory at Itzulia Basque Country, his first win of 2025 and the second World Tour victory of his career (Photo: Luis Angel Gomez-SCA-Cor Vos)

He said how a rider approached those races was vital. They were so hard that riders were often only a matter of seconds apart going over the top of the key climbs, yet the order of the day was often decided by those small gaps at those key moments. So by approaching the races with real precision – directing power and aggression where and when it was most effective – it could make a big difference to results.

Last year, he said when his Ardennes Classics campaign was well below expectations – especially after 4th in Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2023 – it was no crisis.

“I don’t think there was really any panic stations,” he said of how he and the team felt. “But it was a big lesson learned, something that we really took forward into this year and obviously it has paid off.”

Heavy-hitter in World Tour races

Though perhaps nobody has said it out loud – maybe because Healy had enjoyed so much success before this year – his performances, certainly his results, in spring have been a big step up. He’s hitting it again and again in World Tour races.

He took a trademark swashbuckling stage win at Itzulia Basque Country (2.UWT), 4th at Strade Bianche (1.UWT), 10th at Amstel Gold Race (1.UWT), 5th La Flèche Wallonne (1.UWT) and 3rd at Liège-Bastogne-Liège (1.UWT). It has been significant how often Healy has been able to go back to the well in World Tour races and continue to excel, rather than coming up short through fatigue.

Healy pushed hard in a bid to medal at the Worlds in Switzerland last year and wants to go “full gas” at the Rwanda Worlds later this season (Photo: Zac Williams-SWpix.com)

In the Basque Country, for example, he went on the attack on each of the last three stages; up the road for a combined 380km. On the first day, his efforts didn’t come to much – being caught and placing 109th. But the next day he won the stage with an epic solo move, of over 50km, from the breakaway, followed by 3rd the next day.

He told stickybottle he was especially pleased with his podium at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, saying it topped an ideal Ardennes week when “everything went to plan and the team rode so strongly”.

“I think it’s pretty serious,” he said when asked what 3rd in a monument meant for the team. “It’s not every year that we’d podium at a monument. So to get on that podium… I think in some ways it makes a season almost.”

He believed that if he continued to develop and approached the races with determination, doing everything he could to prepare properly, he could really aim to win in Ardennes week in the coming years.

Since the spring he has taken a break and then gone on a training camp to Sierra Nevada. And now he is about to getting going again. Though he would take success anywhere he can get it, there is no doubt the Tour de France is now looming large.

He wants to win a stage, rather than ride for general classification. Healy also said the opening week of the race may not be ideally suited to him.

“In the first week, in Lille and on these steep punchy finishes, they’re going to be quite tricky and maybe even dangerous. So if I want to prioritise a stage without any risk, it’s going to be a case of probably staying out of those fights and then looking at a stage into the second or third week.

“And I’m really interested in going full gas for the Worlds. Cycling Ireland are fully behind that as well. So we’re going to do a proper race there, hopefully.”