Irish Tour de France star Ben Healy loses yellow jersey after struggling in gruelling heat in latest stage
Ireland's Healy, who took the maillot jaune out of a breakaway on stage 10, struggled in the heat.
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And it was no surprise to see him overhauled, shipping 13½ mins on the 180.6km stage from Auch.
Healy's second day in yellow was one of suffering.
Once he was gapped, his deficit ballooned as he found
the challenge
of hanging with the general classification riders too much.
On the Hautacam, where Jonas Vingegaard left Pogacar behind in a decisive attack in his 2022 Tour win, the world champion got
revenge
.
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A day after his stage 11 crash, he attacked 12km from the summit finish and put 2min 10sec into his rival, who finished second.
Pogacar's third stage win of this Tour, the 20th of his career, put him a big step closer to what would be a fourth overall title as he leads by 3min 31sec from Vingegaard.
Slovenia's Pogacar dedicated his stage win to Samuele Privitera, the 19-year-old Italian development rider who died after a crash at the Giro della Valle d'Aosta on Wednesday.
Referring to the Hautacam stage in 2022, he said: 'I almost already forgot and was just looking forward to today, then all the people came to me saying all the time about this, 'Is this revenge time?'
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'Then when we approached the bottom of the climb it was the reverse of a few years ago.
'For sure you don't know how the body reacts after a crash, but it was not too bad a crash. Here riding the bike it's not big flexing.'
Irishman Ben Healy wins at Tour De France
Young Scot
Oscar
Onley, 22, finished fifth.
1
The Yellow Jersey overall leader Irish rider Ben Healy of EF Education - EasyPost team arrives at the finish of the 12th stage of the Tour de France
Credit: EPA
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an hour ago
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Exclusive: Ben Healy has been so exciting to watch says Irish cycling legend
SEAN KELLY has enjoyed the best Irish cycling since, well, Irish cycling was enjoying the best of Sean Kelly the cyclist. Ben Healy went nap last Thursday week, winning Stage Six of the Tour de France. Kelly himself claimed five stages, firstly in 1978, then two in 1980, and one 1981 and 1982. Further sensation followed last Monday when 24 year old Healy's third place on Stage 10 on Bastille Day was enough to put him into the yellow jacket, something Kelly held in 1983. 'I am enjoying watching Ben Healy enormously, he's not too young, he is coming into the right age, and he has got a young team about him,' says Waterford's finest, who is on the Tour de France commentary team for TNT Sports. 'His stage win was just brilliant, the way he attacked, going for it at 40 kilometres out, he just has that style of riding that makes it really exciting. 'And then going into yellow for four days, that was very exciting to see not just for me but, I'm sure, cycling back home. 'It's long overdue, a long time since we had somebody in the yellow jersey and that in itself was disappointing because we've had some great riders over the years. 'We always have expectations of guys coming through and hoping they're going to be great riders in the years to come and now this guy, Ben Healy, is actually doing it now. 'This year's Tour has something special about it too, there has been exceptionally fast racing and aggressive racing and it's going to be a question for the rest of the Tour, how much more can Ben achieve here.' Healy would remain in yellow for two nights, a rest day and following a combative Stage 11 around Toulouse. 'When you're winning a stage in the Tour of France and you are race leader, you're going to be under the spotlight,' says Kelly, a sprint/points specialist who wore the yellow jersey for a day in 1983. 'Having achieved those two goals Ben is the rider a lot of the other teams will be looking at and would love to have him in their ranks. 'He's made a huge step here in this Tour de France and the question they will be asking is how far can he go?' Healy relinquished the race lead on Stage 12 , a vicious climb into Hautacam that saw the field spread-eagled behind Tour favourite Tadej Pogacar. The Irishman finished 13 minutes down, was still as high as 25th on the day amid the carnage and while he dropped to 11th in the General Classification there is still lots to aim for. 'Thursday was a really interesting day because Ben hasn't been in that situation before, riding to defend and hold on to the yellow jersey in the biggest race in the world. 'So he wouldn't have known, I certainly didn't know, in advance how he would hold up. 'Don't forget he is up against the biggest stars in the world, who have been duking it out for the Tour of France, notably Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard and then other guys such Remco Evenepoel, who was third last year, they are the top three. 'So he was in the biggest cohort with the biggest talents in the world at the moment and trying to hold on to the yellow jersey. 'Sometimes when guys get into the yellow jersey, they can do unbelievable things but it can be the other way as well, the weight of the yellow jersey and all that tension can have that contra effect. He will have learned a lot from how it unfolded.' Kelly doesn't believe Healy should be written out of the 2025 story just yet, given he has proven a canny stage manager. 'The day he finished third and took the yellow, he had made a lot more of an effort than some of the guys who were second, third, fourth, fifth, etc behind him in the General Classification. 'And it was a day that had the bonus of a rest day the next day so he could just get some extra time to recover because he did put in big, big, massive effort. 'The 24 hours meant he was able to stay in the race in Stage 11, which wasn't one of these big testing stages but the final bit was a complicated one — short, small hills where you have 150 or 170 riders trying to get into a place where there's only place for 20 or 25 riders. 'There is always the risk of a crash when you are caught up in all of that so it is very important to avoid trouble. 'It was not a stage where you could relax as such at all and where you know you have to be on your game right through the day.' Ben Healy's gorgeous sausage dog (Image: escape collective) Healy, who when he is not on th bike is the owner of a beautiful sausage dog, rode the stage well, which meant it was technically his third day in yellow, albeit his first defence in the saddle. As for looking for another stage win, Kelly reckons his US-registered EF Education-EasyPost are ideally suited to support him. 'EF Education, they might not be one of the big top teams budget-wise but, you know, they always punch above their weight and they seem to be able to win stages. 'There are a lot of other teams who are bigger budget-wise but they do not have the results these last years and this year again. 'When you look at ES Education EasyPost, they weren't a team with a lead rider who was probably expected to deliver a top five in the Tour of France, which is the main target for a lot of the teams and a lot of the riders. 'If you're talking about finishing eighth in the Tour de France or winning a stage – winning a stage is more important and that's what Ben was going for, targeting the stages that suited his style of riding. 'I'd be hopeful there is something from him next week. It's his type of terrain so we can assume he will have picked the stages suiting his style of riding, his capabilities, his characteristics.' Even should Healy fade from here, he has left his mark. 'In Ireland he's going to be pretty much a household name for what he has done so far. 'If he can make some more headlines, maybe take a second stage he certainly will be up there as one of the big names in the cycling world, not just in Ireland, but all over Europe and all over the world, 'But I think Irish cycling fans and cycling followers of Ben Healy will be buying the jersey in any case — he has made his mark and it will be interesting to see how his career moves on from here.' Winning this year may look like a bit of a stretch now but, make no mistake, Ireland haven't have had such a live Tour de France prospect for almost 40 years. Watch comprehensive live coverage of every stage of the Tour de France with Sean Kelly on TNT Sports. Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts.
