a day ago
‘I'm just super proud to represent Ireland and wear the yellow jersey' – Ben Healy on taking overall Tour de France lead
Healy initially went clear in a 30-man group that included his EF Education Easypost teammates Alex Baudin, Neilson Powless and Harry Sweeny as well as a host of strong climbers.
Having started the day in 12th place overall, 3'55' behind race leader Tadej Pogacar, Healy was best placed of the group overall and, with an eye on moving up the overall standings, he and his teammates immediately set about trying to open the gap to the peloton.
When their breakaway group's advantage went out to over five minutes, Healy became virtual race leader on the road and the relentless pressure from him and his team began to whittle their fellow escapees down to around 15 riders before Healy attacked with about 25km to go, taking just five riders with him.
With Healy riding hard on the front to try and gain enough time to hopefully don yellow at the end of the stage, the rest of the lead group refused to lend a hand, sitting in his slipstream in the hope that one of them could snatch the stage win at the end.
"At some point, the stage became a fight against myself,' he said of his race for yellow. "I know I was taking some risks by digging so deep for so long but how often does an opportunity like this come around?'
On the final climb of the day, a 3km rise to the line, recent Giro d'Italia winner Simon Yates jumped clear, followed by Aussie Ben O'Connor and Dutchman Thymen Arensman with Healy losing contact after all of his hard work.
Still, he fought on in the hope of taking over the race lead, managing to catch and pass O'Connor before the line to finish third on the stage, 30 seconds behind Yates.
Healy, who had already won stage six in a similar fashion to today's ride, then had an anxious wait to see if he had gained enough time on overnight leader and defending champion Tadej Pogacar.
When Pogacar crossed the line four minutes and 51 seconds later at the head of the peloton, Healy realised he had done enough to take the yellow jersey and leadership of the Tour de France for the first time.
'It's a fairytale,' Healy admitted afterwards, 'If you'd told me this before the Tour, I wouldn't have believed you. A stage win and the yellow jersey is incredible, beyond belief really.'
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With victory on stage six already under his belt, today was Healy's second day in a breakaway that managed to stay clear to the line.
'I've got some good legs at the moment,' he smiled. 'UAE surprisingly let a really big break go up the road and we had four guys in it, and I've got to really say a massive thank you to Harry Sweeney and Alex Baudin today. They were just incredible and I'm so glad I was able to finish it off in the end.'
Healy becomes only the fourth Irish rider to wear yellow at the Tour after Shay Elliot, Seán Kelly and Stephen Roche, who went on to win the race in 1987.
'It's some pretty crazy footsteps to follow,' he admitted. 'I'm just super proud to represent Ireland and wear the yellow jersey for them. Hopefully, I can do it justice.'
When asked if his goals had now changed from stage hunting to riding for the overall classification, he replied: 'I think it would be rude not to. You've got to respect the jersey. I'm in quite a nice position now and I've just got to try and hold on for as long as possible.'
Healy now leads the Tour by 29 seconds from defending champion and reigning world champion Pogacar, with Olympic road race champion Remco Evenepoel third, at a minute and 29 seconds,
Healy also leads the best young rider competition from Evenepoel, with the Belgian Olympic champion also a minute and 29 seconds behind in that classification.
His storming ride also earned him the combativity award for the stage, the result being announced with 10km to go such was Healy's domination today.
An impressive haul in the King of the Mountains competition also moved him into second place in that classification, just nine points behind leading climber Lenny Martinez.
With a rest day tomorrow, Healy will begin his defence of the race lead on Wednesday with stage 11.
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