Ben Healy was one of the main figures of the Tour de France, having won a stage, wore the yellow jersey, attacked constantly and at the end being awarded with a trip to the podium in Paris as this year’s most combative rider.EF Education-EasyPost could’ve had a disastrous race taking into consideration Richard Carapaz had to withdraw from the race before it began and right on the first stage of the race Marijn van den Berg crashed whilst in contention for the stage win – and later also abandoned the race.
The team had a few shots at stage victories but it was the Irishman that took the full spotlight within the team. On stage 6 he soared to a brilliant stage victory solo in Vire which also catapulted him into a potential GC fight. Although he had made his intentions clear, no-one prevented him from jumping into the breakaway on stage 10, and he dramatically took over the race lead with a memorable breakaway effort that saw him jump into the race lead by a mere few seconds over Tadej Pogacar.
On stage 12 he had a bad day whilst in yellow and fell out of the Top10, but recovered to jump back in and put in a strong climbing performance alongside the best in some days. On stage 16, he almost won atop Mont Ventoux after getting in the breakaway, but was only narrowly beaten by Valentin Paret-Peintre. Every single one of his three breakaways (although he attempted to be present in more) was very successful and served an important purpose to his overall classification.
Healy was considered the most combative of the race, adding to his days in the yellow jersey and ninth place in the final overall classification. “Last year really gave me the confidence that I could race at this level. I just did the hard work and I was always confident that I could do something like a stage win. But to cap it off with the Yellow Jersey and a top 10 in the GC is definitely a bit beyond expectations but I don’t think it’s gonna change the way that I race. I’m just super proud with the level I was here.
He concluded: “It means a lot that people enjoy the way I race. I just try to do it from the heart, doing what I enjoy and if other people enjoy it as well that’s great.”