The first week of the Tour de France has seen plenty of expected winners: defending champion Tadej Pogacar has already won two stages to add to his haul of 19 career wins at the race, 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, as they battle for supremacy on the flat.
But by the end of the opening week – actually 10 days, with the first rest day falling after stage 10 – there was an altogether unexpected rider pulling on the leader’s yellow jersey, displacing Pogacar himself.
Ben Healy won stage six from Bayeux to Vire Normandie and his brilliant Tour continued with a third place on stage 10, from Ennezat to Le Mont-Dore Puy de Sancy in the Massif Central, enough to secure the race lead at the expense of the world’s best rider and three-time champion. The 24-year-old made history as only the fourth Irishman to wear yellow, and the first since Stephen Roche in 1987.
But who is Healy, and what has his career looked like so far?
Irishman Healy was born and raised near Birmingham but chose to represent the country of his Waterford- and Cork-born paternal grandparents, and races with Irish stripes on his sleeves courtesy of being a former national road race champion.
The 24-year-old was cycling and mountain biking from an early age and spent several years as a teenager with various British club teams, including Team Wiggins le Col, which also counted Tom Pidcock among its ranks. At the age of 18 he became the youngest stage winner at the Tour de l’Avenir, renowned as a breakout race for future stars.
Riding for Trinity Racing, he took back-to-back victories in the under-23 time trial and elite men’s road race at Irish national championships in 2020, before three podium places at the Baby Giro, a Giro d’Italia-style race for under-23s, including a win on the final stage.
In 2022 he moved up to WorldTour level, the highest level of elite cycling, joining American squad EF Education-EasyPost. Another victory in the time-trial in the Irish national championships followed that year, as well as a bronze in the road race.
2023 was to prove his breakout year. The Ardennes Classics proved a happy hunting ground for the then-22-year-old, as he secured a second place at Brabantse Pijl and Amstel Gold before just missing out on a podium finish at Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
He won the Irish elite men’s road race at nationals the same year, but really burst onto the scene with a 50km solo stage win at the Giro d’Italia. Healy spent 196km in total in the breakaway on stage eight, from Terni to Fossombrone, a punchy, hilly stage with three categorised climbs, before dropping his companions to finish with a near-two minute advantage. It was his maiden grand tour stage victory, on his debut at a three-week race.
Last year he recorded a top-10 at the Olympic road race in Paris as well as a seventh place in the World Championships in Zurich, while further top-10s followed in the Classics this year: third in Liege-Bastogne-Liege, fourth in Strade Bianche, fifth in Fleche-Wallonne, and 10th in Amstel Gold.
His win at the Giro both indicated his pedigree but also his preferred way of racing: at full pace all day, riding weaker riders off his wheel, before surging away on long-range solo attacks. He also took a second place on stage 15 of the Giro that same year, in the same manner.
And that was exactly how he took his maiden Tour de France win last week: escaping into an eight-man breakaway before dropping his companions on the climb with 42km to go on stage six. Despite the calibre of climbers in the chasing group he continued to build his advantage, finishing with 2’44” on his closest pursuer, Quinn Simmons.
“It’s just unbelievable really,” the EF Education-EasyPost rider said. “It’s what I’ve worked for not just this year but the whole time really, it’s really incredible, hours and hours of hard work from so many people and to pay them back today is really amazing.
“This was a stage I had circled in the book from the start and to do it in the first one is amazing.”
His aerodynamic form and explosive kick on tough climbs make him an obvious pick to get into a breakway, as well as handily placed for success when the gradient slopes uphill.
Now he leads the Tour de France by 29” seconds over Tadej Pogacar, as well as leading the best young rider classification by 1’29” over Belgian superstar Remco Evenepoel, who was third overall at the Tour de France last year.
“It’s really beyond belief, if someone had told me I’d be in yellow and have won a stage of the Tour, by the first rest day as well, I wouldn’t have believed you,” the Irishman said afterwards.
“I kind of gambled a bit. I had the stage win in the bank, and how often do you get the opportunity to put yourself into yellow, so I felt I had to take that and really go for it.”
