Ben Healy on his stellar Tour de France: ‘I was climbing up the Hautacam with a massive smile on my face'

New York Times

2 days ago

'I just felt like a deer in the headlights, really. I've done this amazing thing, but I was so starstruck by it. I didn't know what was going on. So many cameras, so many people, phones going off all around you. I was just like: 'What's going on here?'
'It wasn't until the stage when I lost it, and was looking down at the yellow bike, riding up the Hautacam with everyone cheering my name, looking at the names on the road, that I thought: 'What have I just done?' So even though I was losing the jersey, I was climbing up the Hautacam with a massive smile on my face. That was the first time I really appreciated being in yellow, because the rest of the time was so crazy.'
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There are many adjectives which could be used to describe Ben Healy's 2025 Tour de France. Combative. Successful. Yellow. But sometimes the best words are images, the slow, sideways rotation of his head as he suffers: taking a stage, saving the maillot jaune, sprinting up the final hairpin of Mont Ventoux.
In many ways, this was Healy's Tour. Outside of its overall champion Tadej Pogacar, the Irishman was its compelling force, winner of flowers, minds, and the race's super-combativity prize.
This is his Tour in his words.
In April's Ardennes Classics, Healy was on top form. He finished third at the historic Liege-Bastogne-Liege, having challenged throughout the week. But by the time the Tour's build-up rolled around, he felt sluggish. Healy's Criterium du Dauphine in June, traditionally the warm-up race for most Tour de France competitors, was anonymous.
'It really wasn't smooth,' he says, speaking just over a week after the end of the Tour. 'No major dramas, but it just didn't feel like anything was clicking for me. So I think me and quite a few people in the team were a bit stressed.
'The quiet Dauphine was a product of me not feeling good. I just didn't seem to be responding to training that well, struggling to lose weight. It was a bit of a panic.'
There was a lot on the 24-year-old's shoulders.
Richard Carapaz, who was expected to lead the EF Education-EasyPost team after his Giro d'Italia podium, had withdrawn one week before the Tour with a gastrointestinal infection. The Ecuadorian had been coveting the polka-dot jersey. Now, the team's only goal was stage wins.
With around a dozen of their rivals holding similar interests, the approach was high-risk — but the American-based squad had no choice.
'Last year, I just went for it every day without really thinking too deeply,' Healy explains. 'And I definitely paid for that in the second and third week. So it was really early in December that I started thinking: 'How am I going to win this year?' And then I sat down with my coach and the DSs (directeur sportifs), literally one or two days before the Tour, went through the roadbook, and we were all in agreement. The first one (to target) was stage six.'
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The stage-win hunters had needed to wait their turn, with Thierry Gouvenou's Tour route prioritising opportunities for the sprinters and GC riders for much of the first week. But the 201.5km from Bayeux to Vire Normandie presented a genuine chance — up and down all day, with over 3,550m of climbing.
It meant the breakaway was strong — including Mathieu van der Poel, one of cycling's Big Four, American champion Quinn Simmons and this year's Giro d'Italia winner Simon Yates.
'It's a funny thing to say, but my mindset wasn't really affected by who was in the break,' says Healy. 'No matter who was in it, I knew how I had to win, and that didn't really change. I knew I couldn't take Van der Poel to the finish, but to be honest, I don't really want to take anyone to the finish.
'I knew I had to go solo, but then you've also got to be sneaky, because if you do it on the steepest part, everyone's going to be aware of that.
'I also knew I had good legs. I warmed up the day before at the time trial (in Caen), and remember thinking: 'I've done that as well as I've ever done.' And that doesn't just disappear straight away. And so as soon as I hit those first few climbs, I could just feel that I was floating on the pedals.'
Healy attacked the group with 42km to go — going over a small roller during a false flat downhill, a spot picked by DS Tom Southam in the EF team car. Healy then averaged 6.2 watts/kg for the next 22 minutes to open up the decisive gap: 'We'd discussed it before. It was all about finding that inconspicuous place, and we'd loosely identified the area — and then when I made the break, I radioed the team car to find the spot.
'I came from the back with a bit of speed, and when you come past at five kilometres per hour faster than anyone else, everybody looks at each other and thinks: 'I don't want to do that.' Then it was just head down and go.'
⚠️ Ben Healy solo ride alert! The Irishman launched a blistering attack that left his breakaway companions stranded. He's already 25" ahead!
⚠️ Alerte numéro solitaire de Ben Healy ! L'Irlandais a placé une attaque foudroyante qui a laissé sur place ses compagnons d'échappée.… pic.twitter.com/nN0oF8flq6
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 10, 2025
From the outside, including in EF's team bus, where The Athletic was embedded during that stage, Healy always looked under control. His lead was over a minute with 30km remaining, and only increasing.
'We weren't getting any time gaps, so I was always a bit anxious about it,' he says. 'It was a Tour de France stage on the line, and I was getting a bit stressed because I had no idea (of the situation behind him). The last few climbs were really difficult, and I was really starting to feel it in the legs.
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'I hit the penultimate climb and tried to pace it as best as I could, but I could really feel the tank was starting to empty. But thankfully, I got a time gap over the top, and then I could start to relax, because I saw two minutes on that board.'
Healy coasted through to win the stage — his first ever in the Tour de France, and second in the sport's three Grand Tours after one in the 2023 Giro d'Italia. It was the biggest moment of his career.
But just four days later, Healy arguably eclipsed it: escaping in the Massif Central on stage 10, the race's first mountain day proper, to gain over four minutes on the peloton. In finishing third, he seized the yellow jersey — Ireland's first in the Tour since Stephen Roche won the race in 1987.
'I don't think yellow was on the team's mind (entering stage 10), but it was definitely on my mind,' Healy says. 'After stage six, I wanted to hang in there in case of that opportunity, because a lot of the time, you've got to have a lot of things lined up for yellow, if you're not entering aiming to win the race.
'So we entered focused on the stage win, there was a big break, and (rival team) UAE didn't seem too interested in keeping it tight and under control. So halfway through the stage, we realised this was a realistic thing, and we could throw resources at it. At 80km to go, we switched mindsets, using Harry Sweeny, and then Alex (Baudin), and trying to keep the group rolling so it wasn't only down to us.
'Then, when those guys were done, I could either have gambled (on the stage win), and potentially come away with nothing, or go head down and go for yellow.'
Up the road, Yates and Thymen Arensman duelled it out for the stage victory, with the other members of the breakaway sitting on Healy's wheel, knowing the Irishman was compelled to work. He beat the remainder across the line anyway.
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Late that night, in an emotional moment, he was reunited with his teammates at a truck stop on the way to the rest day in Toulouse.
'The stage was what I really wanted from the start, because yellow always felt impossible,' explains Healy. 'So I think I'm more proud about going into yellow, but the stage win brought more emotion, because it was all I wanted, it was the first thing that I did, and it was just such a release from the pressure and the stress and everything that comes with the Tour.
'I felt really emotional about it; it was a massive relief. And yellow just came so fast, I wasn't expecting it.'
Healy's time in yellow was a whirlwind. Speaking at a hastily arranged press conference in the reception area of an airport hotel the next day, he emphasised his intention to honour the jersey — despite knowing it would be a near-impossibility to keep it through the Pyrenees.
He had, however, switched to GC mode, with team boss Jonathan Vaughters excitedly speaking about podiums and top 10s.
'I didn't take it too seriously in a lot of ways,' laughs Healy, discussing whether that added undue pressure. 'I wanted to race GC and not lose time on purpose, but I wasn't too stressed if I did lose a load of time — I knew that with some stages that still suited me, it wouldn't be the worst thing if I lost time.'
Stage 11 was a loop around Toulouse. At times, the start area that day felt dominated by the green T-shirts of the Ben Healy Fan Club — initially made as a present for Healy's father, but which had snowballed at stage finish lines into a lawn of colour. His dog, Olive, became a breakout star of the Tour as well.
A post shared by EF Education–EasyPost (@efprocycling)
Healy kept the jersey over the final bumpy kilometres — even playing an important role in the peloton's decision to wait for Pogacar after the race favourite crashed in the closing stages, conversing with Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel to slow the bunch down.
The next day, however, on the Hautacam, was when Pogacar seized control of the race. Healy was separated on the penultimate climb of the day, the Col du Soulor, eventually losing over 13 minutes to the Slovenian.
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'I was never fully confident of keeping the jersey, racing against Tadej and the like, but I was still confident that I could put in a better performance than I did. It just crumbled around me a little bit,' Healy says.
'I really struggle in the heat; it's a recurring weakness of mine. I could feel I had really good legs, but once I get to a point of overheating, it's just so hard for me to come back from that. That's when Sweeny came in and just poured every bottle he could over the back of my neck.
'I recovered a bit on the descent but when you arrive at the Hautacam already 10 minutes back, there's not a lot you can do. I just went as hard as I could to the line, and tried to take it all in as well.'
Healy's aims were now clear: protect his top 10 position on GC — uncharted ground for him — and use the relative freedom of no longer being a podium threat to chase more stage wins.
His next opportunity came on stage 16, up the legendary Mont Ventoux. A large breakaway was slowly trimmed down until a leading trio of Healy, Frenchman Valentin Paret-Peintre and Colombia's Santiago Buitrago went clear. Despite appearing the strongest rider, often forced to pull in the closing kilometres, Healy was outsprinted by Paret-Peintre in the final 100m drag to the finish.
Despite all the success of his 2025 Tour, was a tiny part of Healy still dwelling on that near miss?
'I think it's still more pride, to be honest,' he answers, after a slight pause. 'I can't be too disappointed — I wanted to race, I wasn't able to pull it off, and Valentin was also super-strong. It was still a really good day and a really good battle with him. For sure, I'm a little gutted to finish second, but that's bike racing. You can't win everything.'
Healy explains that he felt he couldn't attack Paret-Peintre too early — with Enric Mas up the road, the trio could not squabble among each other too early, for fear of the Spaniard riding away to the stage win. Television footage showed him animatedly reinforcing his point to his breakaway companions.
'Mas is a good bike rider — we couldn't let him walk away with it,' Healy says. 'I felt like I could separate from them, but chose not to, because if I reached Enric after a big effort in the headwind, then I might not be able to drop him. It was better to work with the other guys.
'I also wasn't sure if I had the legs to go for a super-long solo on Ventoux, so I played it safe, I guess. The attacks unfolded after Chalet Reynard (at an altitude of 1,400m/around 4,500ft), but the headwinds and slightly shallower gradients made it harder to attack Valentin, and I think that's how it ended up in a sprint.
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With hindsight, I probably should have gone before Chalet Reynard, because Enric probably wasn't as strong as I feared he would be, but I'm still not disappointed with the decisions I made or the way that I raced.'
His racing style was recognised with the super-combativity prize at the end of the Tour, an award given to an aggressive rider who is seen to have animated the race as a whole over the three weeks. It is not generally seen as a major honour, but it was significant to Healy.
'It's definitely something that appeals to me,' he says. 'As a byproduct of how I race, that's a cool thing for sure. And getting to stand on the podium on the Champs-Elysees… how many riders ever get to do that?'
Olive made it to the cloakroom just short of the podium itself.
So what now? Healy does not plan to chase GC at future Grand Tours, at least as a Plan A.
'I really enjoy being aggressive, and that's how I want to go forward. If I believe I can contend for a podium, then maybe my focus will switch. But right now, going for stage wins and being kind of backdoor on GC is how I want to go forward.'
The big target for the rest of the season is the World Championships in Rwanda at the end of September.
It will be a tough day of racing: 267.5km, with 5,475m of climbing. Pogacar will go in as favourite, having beaten Healy over similar terrain at Liege-Bastogne-Liege this year, but the smaller team sizes allowed this time could lend itself to the type of chaotic race in which Healy excels.
'That's definitely the big goal for me,' Healy says. 'Whatever it takes to get there in the best shape I can, that's what I'm going to do.'
In finishing third behind Pogacar at Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Healy jokingly asked the Slovenian: 'When are you going to retire?'
'I have a contract until 2030, so that's the year maybe,' came the response.
After his 2025 Tour, Healy's rivals may now be asking the Irishman the same question.
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