Latest news with #BenHealy
RTÉ News
2 days ago
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Ben Healy wins combativity award at Tour de France
Ben Healy has won the Super Combativity award for his performances during the 2025 Tour de France. Ahead of Sunday's final stage, the Irish rider emerged victorious in the shortlist of eight riders decided by a combination of a public vote and the race jury. Jonas Abrahamsen of the Uno-X Mobility came out on top in the public vote via social media but the expert jury ultimately swung it in Healy's favour. The award comes with a a €20,000 prize and a place on the podium in Paris. Healy is the second Irishman to earn the award after Dan Martin in 2018. 💪 🇮🇪 Ben Healy is the #TDF2025 Super Combative! After adding up the votes of the jury and the public, it is the Irishman who is rewarded for his resolutely offensive Tour! 💪 🇮🇪 Ben Healy est le Super combatif @century21fr du #TDF2025! Après addition des votes du jury et… — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 27, 2025 It has been a memorable three weeks for English-born 24-year-old, Healy, who became just the fourth Irish cyclist to wear the famous Yellow Jersey, following a storming third-place Bastille Day performance, which came in the wake of his victory on stage six - his maiden stage triumph at the Tour de France. He had a second place finish on the legendary Mont Ventoux last Tuesday. This year's Tour is the second of the EF Education-EasyPost rider's career and he is on course for a top ten finish, sitting ninth in the general classification ahead of the race climax.
Extra.ie
5 days ago
- Sport
- Extra.ie
Udder chaos: Cattle cause Tour de France to reroute stage
In one of the stranger sporting announcements of the year the Tour de France have been forced to change the route to Friday's stage due to cattle culling. The stage is taking place in the Alps as the originally scheduled 129.9km ride begins at Albertville and concludes in La Plagne. However the route has been cut down by over 25% to just 95km after a cattle disease outbreak has meant that local farmers have to cull cattle to curb the outbreak. The stage will now avoid the Col des Saisies mountain pass where the cattle culling is taking place. In a statement the Tour de France said; Peloton in col des Saisies. Pic: James Startt/'The discovery of an outbreak of contagious nodular dermatitis affecting cattle in a herd located specifically in the Col des Saisies has necessitated the culling of the animals. 'In light of the distress experienced by the affected farmers and in order to preserve the smooth running of the race, it has been decided, in agreement with the relevant authorities, to modify the route of Stage 19 (Albertville–La Plagne) and to avoid the ascent to the Col des Saisies. Ben Healy. Pic:'The ceremonial start will take place as planned at the exit of Albertville. After a 7km parade, riders will head towards the D925, where the official start will be given. 'The race will then rejoin the original route shortly before Beaufort (at km 52.4 on the original schedule). 'Due to this change, which notably bypasses the Col des Saisies, the stage will now cover a total distance of 95km instead of the originally planned 129.9km.' Tadej Pogacar. Pic:Tadej Pogacar goes into the stage as the yellow jersey holder as the leader of general classification while Ireland's Ben Healy is down in ninth. Healy is also the fourth ranked rider in the Tour de France youth rankings following his first stage win on this tour and getting to dawn the yellow jersey. The Tour de France will culminate this Sunday 27 July as the riders will make their way north back to Paris where they'll parade down the Champs-Élysées.
Irish Times
5 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Stephen Roche on Ben Healy: ‘The sky is the limit, and if I were him, I'd keep dreaming big'
In the 38 years since Stephen Roche first rode his bike up to the ski resort at La Plagne in the 1987 Tour de France nothing about its brutal gradient or length has changed. 'No, it hasn't got any easier, or shorter,' says Roche, who rode up La Plagne again last Friday as part of the Cure Leukaemia charity cycle, which has been covering all of this year's Tour stages a week in advance. 'Still 19km, not much shelter on it either, and a fast road. The Tour stages these days are a bit shorter, it was only 129km, but still a lot of climbing, standing on the pedals.' It was the pivotal summit finish in Roche's outright Tour victory in 1987, the 185km Stage 21 from Le Bourg d'Oisans to La Plagne, remembered in part for Phil Liggett's legendary race commentary on Channel 4: READ MORE 'Again, Pedro Delgado has slipped Stephen Roche on the climb. But remember, at one point he had a minute and a half, and just who is that rider coming up behind ... because that looks like Roche! That looks like Stephen Roche, it's Stephen Roche that has come over the line. He almost caught Pedro Delgado, I don't believe it. Surely ... Stephen Roche is now going to win this Tour de France.' Whether this Friday's Stage 19 to La Plagne, the last big mountain finish, proves equally pivotal remains to be seen, but the 2025 Tour will already be remembered for the exploits of Ben Healy . After winning Stage 6 with a 42km solo breakaway in Vire Normandie, Healy became the first Irish rider since Roche in 1987 to take the leader's yellow jersey after Stage 10, wearing it for two days on Stage 11 and 12. Roche has been watching Healy's career closely over the last number of years, reckoning he might need to rein in his attacking style a little, especially in the Tour. 'I don't know Ben very well, but he's a great guy. I met him last year at the World Championships in Zurich. A few of them were having a few drinks in a bar after the race. I was congratulating him on his season and just chatting like that. I told him maybe refrain a little, rather than attacking 25 times, attack maybe five times. 'He was saying 'that's the way I am, I do things differently', and I just told him your career goes very quickly, you don't want to be known as a very aggressive rider but (who) hasn't got a palmarès (list of wins). It's about winning races, that's what you leave behind. 'I wasn't advising him, we were just shooting the breeze, but then when I saw him winning his first Tour stage, and majestically winning it, it was a brilliant ride. 'Being in the group from a long way out, attacking with 40km to go, you need some balls to do that. Tadej Pogačar can do it, but very few actually do it and maintain it. I was a little worried he might keel over on the final climb, but no, Ben just kept going, putting more time on the two guys behind him.' Ben Healy approaches the line solo to win Stage 6 of the 2025 Tour de France. Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP via Getty Images After taking over the yellow jersey in Puy de Sancy, Healy became only the fourth Irish rider to wear the famed maillot jaune. Roche wore it for three days in 1987, as did Shay Elliott in 1963, while Seán Kelly wore it for one day in 1983. 'It was the way he managed that stage,' says Roche of Healy's Stage 10 effort. 'He rode so aggressively from the front, knew the yellow jersey was there and he was prepared to dig in and go for it, whatever the result was. Again, very few riders can do that, especially in today's cycling.' Healy lost the yellow jersey on the first big day of climbs in the Hautes-Pyrénées, coming in 13 minutes and 38 seconds behind Pogačar despite the best efforts of his team EF Education-EasyPost. Wearing the yellow jersey for even a single day can take an extra toll on the rider, although Roche doesn't believe that necessarily got to Healy. 'Ben is also a very laid-back guy. I was a bit different, and I think in our day there was a lot more stress after winning a stage, or winning a yellow jersey. 'Riders these days are more micromanaged, they have their own press officer looking after them, so I wouldn't say wearing the yellow jersey took that much out of him. 'But Healy hasn't come out of nowhere, this is the fruit of his hard work and dedication. He must also believe in himself now, after the performances he's put in the last few years, in the Tour and the Classics.' Ben Healy (right) is beaten to the line by Soudal Quick-Step's Valentin Paret-Peintre on Stage 16. Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP via Getty Images Healy displayed all his belief again in Tuesday's stage to Mont Ventoux, falling just a bike-length short of another place in Tour history, crossing the line second behind Frenchman Valentin Paret-Peintre. 'I thought he was unlucky,' says Roche. 'Tactically, maybe he didn't play it right. It's easy to say that in hindsight, but if I was Ben, after winning a stage and wearing the yellow jersey, I wouldn't have been so aggressive. I'd have sat back and told the others 'if you want to win this stage, you ride for it'. I'd have a bluffed a little bit too,' says Roche. 'He definitely deserved to win, and until the last 50m he had won it. But you could see Paret-Peintre had some extra motivation, to be the first French stage winner on this Tour.' For Roche, there's no doubt the 24-year-old Healy is still approaching his prime. Roche rode the Tour 10 times, finishing third in 1985 (aged 25), winning in 1987 aged 27, then winning another stage in 1992 (aged 32). 🚴♂️ Cycling legend Stephen Roche has just added his signature to this jersey YOU could WIN! This unique jersey will be signed by four Tour de France winners. For every £20 donation to — The Tour 21 (@TheTour21) 'He can definitely get better in time trialling with a bit more coaching. Climbing, we've seen he's not far off the mark. Generally, there's still a bit of progression to be made. So the sky is the limit, and if I were him, I'd keep dreaming big. 'I think he definitely has what it takes to target the podium anyway. You've got to target the yellow jersey, of course, but he can definitely target the podium. 'Until now, some people were saying 'Ben who? Oh the Irish guy?' But after this Tour, Ben Healy is a household name in cycling, all the peloton know what Ben is capable of, so you won't get as much rope as you got before. Once you start knocking on the door, doing these kind of performances, you become a marked man. 'But I don't think that will bother Ben. He shoots from the hip, really. Sometimes that comes with a cost as well, but the Tour is a special case, it's a different monster. You really do need to have special qualities to get up there like Healy has.'
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Automotive
- The Guardian
The bicycle played a rich role in Ireland's past. Now it is key to our future
The front pages in Ireland were splashed with yellow last week after Ben Healy became the first Irish cyclist in 38 years to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France. While those who cycle sometimes make a point of separating its two forms – sport and transport – they are deeply interlinked, and bumpy streets on the island of Ireland have played a part in that. In 1888, John Boyd Dunlop developed the pneumatic tyre to help his son cycle around Belfast more comfortably. The technology was first used for racing bicycles and then manufactured in a factory in central Dublin before it was brought into widespread use. The combination of the pneumatic tyre and the safety bicycle led to a boom in cycling. This new model was the iPhone of bicycles at the time, replacing earlier bikes including the penny farthing with its impractically large front wheel. Having played a crucial role in everything from grocery deliveries to the 1916 Easter Rising that put Ireland on the path to independence, bicycles have left their mark on Irish history. One of their most significant impacts has been an increase in social connectivity and less rural isolation. At its Museum of Country Life in County Mayo, the National Museum of Ireland features an exhibition on cycling and its transformative effect on Irish life, outlining how, by the 1930s, 'bicycles became the key mode of transport in every parish in Ireland, dramatically changing the social life of ordinary people'. A number of first-hand accounts are on display, including memories of cycling tens of miles to dance halls. Peggy McLoughlin recalled: 'When the dance was over, we headed on our homeward journey on our less-than-roadworthy bicycles. Only a few of us possessed lights, the girls with flash lamps positioned themselves four abreast on the road in front, with the dark unlit beings cycling half hidden in between. At the back, you'd have your fingers crossed that you wouldn't encounter any Garda.' The long distances people cycled on country roads 70 years ago put today's cycling debates in perspective. Many claim that bicycles are not practical because of distance, even when the journeys made by car within most towns and cities are much shorter than those that many of our parents or grandparents cycled. But times changed. The Celtic Tiger years brought a different boom: car ownership and usage. By the time of the financial crash in 2008, the number of cars on Irish roads had doubled in 16 years. The impact on cycling was stark. The number of secondary-school students travelling to school daily by bicycle declined from a peak of 50,648 in 1986 to 6,592 in 2011, a fall of 87%. In the late 1980s, more than 19,000 teenage girls cycled to school. That figure had fallen to only 529 in 2011. By the time the tiger was truly dead, five times as many secondary-school girls drove themselves to school than cycled. SUVs, the high bonnets of which are a deadly threat to children, have become more common than bicycles at school. But there has been a resurgence in cycling. When I started transporting my youngest child in a cargo bike in Dublin more than a decade ago, it would always turn heads. Now, cargo bikes – which can be seen as a type of indicator species – are not just a common sight in most of Dublin but are regularly spotted in Cork, Limerick and Galway too. On-street bike sharing, which improved public access and awareness of cycling in Dublin, has now spread to towns such as Athlone, Bray, Carlow, Castlebar, Kilkenny, Mullingar, Portlaoise, Sligo, Tullamore, Westport, Wexford and Wicklow. Before Covid, cycling was already on a gradual rise in the capital, a trend that was boosted by quick-build cycle routes and the protection of some existing cycle lanes with plastic bollards, which received a mixed reception. After this, the latest census in early 2022 showed that despite a significant increase in working from home, all Irish cities recorded a rise in commuting by bike. In Dublin and its suburbs, the proportion of commuters who cycle to work or education is now 8.3%. It has clearly helped that the last government – a centrist coalition that included the Green party – pumped €360m a year into walking and cycling infrastructure between 2020 and this year. The scale of this funding can be seen in context when compared with the UK, where the government allocated £300m for active travel in England in 2025 – spending less money in a country with a far higher population (57 million versus Ireland's 5 million). But inflation means that €360m doesn't go as far as it would have done in 2020. And there were other potholes along the way, including the challenge of ramping up projects and the teams to run them around the country, and what campaigners called out as questionable metrics for success. Five years on, a number of local authorities are starting to make substantial progress on joining cycle routes together into useful networks. And despite the baseless claims made by online commenters and sometimes by politicians that cycle lanes are empty or underused, there are promising signs that more people are cycling in areas where significant improvements have been made. However, the Greens lost all but one of their seats in last year's general election. With mostly rural independent members of parliament replacing them in the governing coalition, will the momentum now be lost? Will funding already spent on planning projects be wasted? Attitudes to cycling are not as polarised in Ireland as in the UK or elsewhere, but opposition to changes on streets and roads, including bus priority and pedestrianisation, is loud. Dealing with objections is a huge part of the job that councils have. There's a greater culture shock and backlash in some smaller towns, where little has changed in decades. Exaggerated claims about the alleged destruction of the fabric of towns and cities are routine. A recent examination of entry points into Dublin city centre found that just 6% of them gained notable cycling improvements in the past decade. People who cycle – and those who try it before giving up – often complain about cycle lanes that are too narrow and disconnected. Faster delivery and more focus are needed in many areas to join up routes. Ben Healy won't be in the top spot when the Tour finishes on the Champs-Élysées on Sunday, but he has lit up the greatest bike race in the world with his energy and enthusiasm; something we would do well to carry over into everyday Irish cycling, to make it a truly mass-participation activity again. To borrow an old Irish election slogan: a lot done, more to do. Cian Ginty is editor of
Irish Times
6 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Jonathan Milan wins 17th stage of Tour de France after late crash
Italian Jonathan Milan claimed his second victory in this year's Tour de France in winning a crash-disrupted sprint on Wednesday's 17th stage. Milan prevailed in a 10-man sprint after the peloton was held up behind a large crash with just one kilometre to go as riders went down on slippery roads in a rainy finish in southeastern France. UAE Team Emirates' Tadej Pogacar crossed the line safely to retain the yellow jersey, with second-place Jonas Vingegaard (Visma Lease-a-Bike) alongside. Ireland's Ben Healy had an uneventful day after Tuesday's heroics up Mont Ventoux, where he took second behind Frenchman Valentin Paret-Peintre, rolling in with the general classification leaders one minute nine seconds behind Milan. READ MORE [ Ben Healy: 'He had a better kick and beat me to the line' Opens in new window ] Healy, racing for EF Education-EasyPost, remains ninth in the GC rankings, 2′53 ahead of Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers). Quentin Pacher, Mathieu Burgaudeau, Jonas Abrahamsen and Vincenzo Albanese broke away early in the stage but stood little chance against the collective power of the sprinters' teams. With the peloton breathing down their necks, Abrahamsen went solo with 11km remaining, only to be reined in 4.3km from the line. Milan was the strongest in the reduced sprint following the crash in the peloton, edging out Belgian Jordi Meeus and Denmark's Tobias Lund Andresen, who crossed second and third respectively. Thursday's 18th stage is a brutal mountain trek between Vif and the Col de la Loze, one of the most feared ascents in the Tour.
