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Irish Times
22-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Ben Healy finishes second in stage 16 of the Tour de France
Ben Healy produced another magnificent ride in the Tour de France , this time finishing second on Stage 16 with its iconic summit finish on Mont Ventoux. It came down to a frantic battle between four riders inside the last 1km, the 24-year-old Healy the first to move within sight of the finish, only to be passed by French rider Valentin Paret-Peintre metres from the line. Both riders were given the same time. It was a nonetheless stunning ride for Healy, of team EF Education–EasyPost, who last week wore the leader's yellow jersey for two days. After catching the last breakaway rider Eric Mas of Movistar with 3.8km to go, Healy kept pressing from the front, along with Paret-Peintre of Soudal Quick-Step. READ MORE Paret-Peintre took off with 2.7km to go, but Healy refused to concede. The duo were then rejoined by Mas and Santiago Buitrago of Bahrain-Victorious with 1.6km to go, leaving four riders on contention for the famous stage win. With 1km to go, Paret-Peintre attacked again, but again Healy refused to concede. Just down the road, Tadej Pogačar and his Danish rival Jonas Vingegaard were leading the chase. Pogačar made his move inside the last 2km, finishing sixth, 43 seconds down on the winner. Stage 16 took in the 172km from Montpellier to Mont Ventoux, also known as the Giant of Provence, the last 20km descent up the iconic mountain the only climb of the day. After making its Tour debut in 1951, Ventoux has become of the most famous climbs in all of cycling. Tom Simpson died here in 1967, Eddy Merckx crawled up in 1970, and Chris Froome ran up in 2016. Approaching from its steepest side, from Bédoin, it finished at the observatory, at just under 2,000m, Healy just missing out on his place in Tour history. Healy had started Stage 16 in 10th in overall GC, 18:41 down on Pogačar, and moves up to ninth overall 17:26 down. More to follow...
Irish Times
17-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Ben Healy loses Tour de France yellow jersey after first brutal day in the Pyrénées
The first brutal day of reckoning in the Hautes-Pyrénées has ended with Ben Healy losing his leader's yellow jersey in the Tour de France by just over 13 minutes. That outcome was decided long before the last suffocating climb on stage 12 to the ski resort on Hautacam, where the honours of the day were won by Tadej Pogacar in his typically obliterating solo style, the defending Tour champion from Slovenia regaining his race lead in the process. Healy finished the day 13 minutes and 38 seconds behind Pogacar. The 181km from Auch to Hautacam, high above Lourdes, finished on the mountain which has a history of shaking up the Tour. No hiding, no bluffing, and no waiting around this time. Healy was visibly suffering well in advance of all that on the Col du Soulor, the first big climb of the day with 56km to go. Despite support from his team EF Education–EasyPost, with Harry Sweeny doing his best to keep Healy in touch, the pace set by Visma-Lease a Bike split apart some of the main contenders, with the searing heat not helping matters. READ MORE At the summit of the Col du Soulor, Pogacar had already regained that race lead, passing that point two and-a-half minutes ahead of Healy, and from there it was a case of damage limitation for the Irish rider. The long day in and out of the saddle finished on the 13.5km stretch up Hautacam, featuring an especially brutal 2km of 10.8 per cent uphill gradient, coming when only halfway up. Healy was already four and-a-half minutes down on Pogacar as the last climb began. Pogacar's UAE-Team Emirates started pressing the pace from there, and just 2km into the climb Pogacar took off, quickly dropping his Danish rival Jonas Vingegaard. Pogacar displayed no ill-effects whatsoever from his high-speed crash 4km before the finish of Wednesday's stage in Toulouse. Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar celebrates after winning stage 12 of the Tour de France from Auch to Hautacam. Photograph: Dirk Waem/Belga Mag/AFP via Getty Images At the finish line on Hautacam, Pogacar had a massive two minutes and 10 seconds to spare on the exhausted Vingegaard, with Healy eventually coming home 13:38 behind, dropping out of the top 10 to 11th in the general classification, and with that ending his two memorable days in the yellow jersey. It was Pogacar's third stage win of the Tour so far, and he now leads the race by 3:21 ahead of Vingegaard. By his own admission, the 24-year-old Healy, riding only his second Tour, had never faced a day like this before in the race for the GC. It was also on Hautacam where Vingegaard sealed his 2022 victory over Pogacar, those roles likely being reversed this time, even at this point in the race. By the summit of the Col du Soulor, Healy had already dropped back to fifth, 2:22 behind Pogacar, with Vingegaard up to second at that point. Healy had started stage 12 leading the GC by 29 seconds from Pogacar of UAE-Team Emirates. After enjoying those two memorable days in the famed yellow jersey, Healy's quest to try win it back begins with a succession of daunting stages – Friday's mountainous time trial of 11km, before Saturday's stage 14 from Pau to Luchon-Superbagnères, which includes the Cols de Tourmalet, Aspin and Peyresourde. After his storming ride on Bastille Day, Healy's third-place finish on stage 11 saw him become only to fourth Irish rider to be awarded the yellow jersey in the now 112 editions of Tour de France, and the first since Stephen Roche wore it for three days during his outright Tour win in 1987. Shay Elliott also held the race lead for three days back in 1963, as did Seán Kelly for one day in 1983. Healy also lost his race white jersey awarded each day to the best younger rider aged 25 or under, with Remco Evenepoel of Soudal Quick-Step moving back in front in that classification.
The Guardian
17-07-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Tour de France 2025: stage 12 takes the race to summit finish in Pyrenees
Update: Date: 2025-07-17T10:36:16.000Z Title: There are four categorised climbs on today's route. Content: The appetiser is the category-four Côte de Labatmale (1.3km, 6.3% average gradient), the summit coming after 91.4km. The Col du Soulour, the first category-one ascent of the Tour, will test the riders' legs even further, cresting after 134.1km (11.8km, 7.3%). The category-two Col des Bordères is a comparatively friendly 3.1km long at 7.7% average gradient, with the summit arriving 141.4km into the stage. Then it's the Hautacam to finish – 13.5km long, with an average gradient of 7.8%. Ouch! Update: Date: 2025-07-17T10:30:35.000Z Title: Preamble Content: The first 11 stages have, as usual, been punishing and endlessly challenging for riders and fascinating and rewardingly complex for fans. But with the first category-one and HC (hors categorie/beyond categorisation) climbs of this year's Tour, today's stage 12 is in a sense where the race really starts. Will it be a breakaway day, a GC day, or a bit of both on the 181km ride from Auch to Hautacam, finishing at the summit where Jonas Vingegaard scored a decisive victory on stage 18 in 2022? Who are the ambitious riders who have been targeting this stage for victory since the route was announced, duly saving their energy, where possible, in recent days? Can Ben Healy delight Irish fans by somehow defending the yellow jersey for EF Education–EasyPost? The defending champion Tadej Pogacar – who suffered a late crash yesterday, prompting Healy and others to slow the pace in the style of old-fashioned peloton patrons – will be man-marking Vingegaard on the way up the mountain, and vice-versa. But there is a big question over how Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates will fare in the high mountains, particularly in view of the loss of key climbing lieutenant João Almeida. It's going to be a fascinating stage, and there are almost certainly surprises and copious amounts of high drama in store. Allez! Neutralised stage stage time: 12.25 UK
New York Times
16-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Tour de France stage 11: Pogacar crashes but peloton waits, Abrahamsen wins from breakaway, Healy defends yellow
Norway's Jonas Abrahamsen won an incident-packed stage 11 at the Tour de France on Wednesday, outsprinting Mauro Schmid in Toulouse. Behind him race favorite Tadej Pogačar crashed in the finale, but did not lose any time to his general classification rivals after they waited for him to rejoin them. Advertisement The stage was flat out from the moment the flag dropped, with several attempts to form a breakaway, some briefly successful, some shut down almost instantly. If EF Education-EasyPost were hoping for an easy day defending Ben Healy's yellow jersey, they did not get one, with the race run at an astonishing average speed of 48 kilometers an hour. Halfway through the stage a quintet of Fred Wright, Schmid, Davide Ballerini, Mathieu Burgaudeau and Abrahamsen got themselves clear, but behind them the peloton was in a constant state of flux, a churning mass of attacks and counter-attacks on the hot roads of the Occitanie region in southern France. With around 68km remaining Healy helped whittle down the yellow jersey group to a selection of favorites, while just ahead of them a deluxe chase group including Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel and the ever-sprightly Quinn Simmons eased clear in a bid to reach the leading five. The culmination of the stage saw a fascinating five vs five battle, which fragmented on the penultimate climb — the Côte de Vieille-Toulouse — with Simmons attacking and bridging to the front group, which disintegrated at the same point, with Schmid and Abrahamsen attacking and going clear. Van der Poel then made his move on the final steep climb of the Côte de Pech David, but although he painfully and incrementally closed the gap on Schmid and Abrahamsen, he was unable to reach them, with the Norwegian edging the sprint and avoiding a protestor wearing an 'Israel out of the Tour' T-shirt. The Israel-Premier Tech team released a statement on Wednesday evening, condemning the incident. 'Israel-Premier Tech respects everyone's right to free speech which includes the right to protest. However, the team absolutely condemns any protests or actions of individuals that interfere with racing at the Tour de France or threaten the safety of the entire peloton, as was seen on stage 11. We thank the ASO for their swift reaction to ensure the riders were not affected.' Jacob Whitehead and Duncan Alexander break down the key moments from a relentless stage. Find all of The Athletic's Tour de France coverage here. Or follow Global Sports on The Athletic app via the Discover tab. Pogačar was probably thinking of the Hautacam, the brutal Pyrenean climb which serves as the final for Thursday's stage. Wednesday's climbs were done — the only thing left was fewer than 10km into the centre of Toulouse. The next thing Pogačar saw was asphalt, and the central reservation of a French highway. The crash happened after Tobias Halland Johannessen switched to the right to match an acceleration from Visma Lease-a-Bike's Matteo Jorgenson. Johannessen clipped Pogačar and the race favorite lost his balance, veered left, skidded, and went down. Pogačar appeared unhurt — telling his team over the radio that he was fine — but with less than four kilometers remaining, the main risk was losing time to his rivals. However, upon realising Pogačar was down, in a crash which was not his fault, the likes of Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel slowed the bunch down, waiting for Pogačar to catch up. Advertisement 'Respect to the peloton,' Pogačar said over his radio, before patting several Visma riders on the back at the finish. 'Respect to everyone, thank you.' Johannessen apologised to Pogačar after the stage. The decision to wait was particularly dramatic after accusations have flown between both UAE and Visma over recent days concerning a 'lack of respect' in feed zones. 'It was a sporting decision,' said Visma's Jorgenson. 'I think after the comments the other day, the accusations of being unsportsmanlike, stuff I've never seen from (Pogačar) before, I think at least now he can be confident that we're trying to beat him in a sporting manner.' 🤝 Sportsmanship at its best! 🤝 La sportivité du peloton !#TDF2025 — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 16, 2025 UAE Team Emirates manager Mauro Gianetti told reporters post-race that the injury was 'nothing big'. 'It's just a little bit of harm to the side of the legs,' he explained. 'And wow, something special happened in front, because even the leader of the race stopped and waited for him to come back. This is chapeau. This is cycling showing something special.' Nevertheless, any crash has an impact on the body the next day — with the Hautacam the riders' first test in the high mountains, the top-level form Pogačar has shown so far this Tour is more uncertain. 'Luckily I just have a little bit of skin off,' Pogačar said post-stage. 'I was scared when I saw the sidewalk that I was going with my head directly to the sidewalk, but luckily my skin is tough and stopped me before the sidewalk.' 'Tomorrow is a big day coming. We'll see how I recover. Normally the day after a crash you're never at the best, but I will give my best tomorrow and we'll see. I think we're ready as a team for Hautacam.' Jacob Whitehead Cyclists suffer, that much is self-obvious and evident from the grimace and sweat. But some cyclists suffer for sport that sometimes feels more like a punishment than a craft, contorting themselves to meet its definitions of improvement and success. Abrahamsen once weighed 60 kg, a weight which, the 29-year-old said last year, had seriously affected his health. In a bid to live up to the heroes of his youth, the weight he shed left him with a delayed puberty — not needing to shave and some inches short of his current height. Two seasons ago, the Norwegian decided something in his career needed to change. Abrahamsen began to eat — putting on 20 kg over a single off-season. Giving up on his climbing dreams? Not a bit of it. Abrahamsen recorded his personal best climbing numbers in the 2024 Tour, animating the polka-dot jersey competition. In Toulouse, however, he eclipsed it all — achieving his first Grand Tour stage win, and just the second major win of his career. Just four weeks earlier, Abrahamsen had broken his collarbone in a crash at stage one of the Baloise Belgium Tour. 'I cried in the hospital thinking I wouldn't make the Tour,' he said after the finish. 'But the day after, I was on the home trainer, trying to get ready.' 🗣️'I broke my collarbone 4 weeks ago… I was crying in the hospital because I thought I would not ride the Tour, but the day after I was on the home trainer…I did everything I could to come back and to win a stage is amazing!' – 🇳🇴 @AbraJonas Interview with a very happy Jonas… — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 16, 2025 He managed to recover in just nine days — 'Maybe I'm superhuman,' he joked to Cycling Weekly before the Grand Depart. Now, he and Uno-X have the first Tour de France stage win in their history, and the day's combativity award too. A word too, for Schmid, who lost a stage he had animated for so long, by so little. No words 💔 What an effort! From KM0 to the finish, a ride to be proud of 👏#TDF2025 — GreenEDGE Cycling (@GreenEDGEteam) July 16, 2025 Jacob Whitehead 'In Toulouse, we usually always have a big bunch sprint,' course designer Thierry Gouvenou told The Athletic earlier this month. 'This year we revised it, there are hills in the final part of the course to try and encourage escapees. We can't offer nine or 10 stages that are completely monotonous.' Well, all we can say is merci, because this stage was a fantastic advertisement for bike racing — there was not a single quiet moment in 157 kilometers. The balance between the riders and the route was perfectly demonstrated in the final part of the stage, with five leaders being chased by five pursuers. On paper the five behind were the stronger quintet, but the five ahead not only knew they had to work perfectly together to stay clear, they fully committed to doing so. There's a phenomenon in road racing called Group Two Syndrome, where a chasing group works less than optimally because there it will contain riders who work less hard than their temporary-allies, hoping to save some energy for when the group in front is eventually caught. Except this lack of cooperation — even if it is subtle — often means that the second group do not in fact reach the riders they are chasing. 🇺🇸 Big attack from @QuinnSimmons9 on the côte de Vieille-Toulouse, who will try to get back to the front of the race on his own. 🇺🇸 Grosse attaque de @QuinnSimmons9 dans la côte de Vieille-Toulouse qui va tenter de rentrer seul sur la tête de course.#TDF2025 — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 16, 2025 But that's where route design kicks in. Because the final two climbs of today's stage were perfectly placed (and of an ideal steepness) to allow the both the leading and second groups to self-destruct via successful attacks. Up top, Schmid and eventual-winner Abrahamsen went clear on the Côte de Vieille-Toulouse, as did Simmons from the second group, while on the Côte de Pech David, Van der Poel made a huge move. 💥 @mathieuvdpoel drops his breakaway companions on the Pech David climb. But @AbraJonas and Mauro Schmid still have a 30-second lead! 💥 @mathieuvdpoel lâche ses compagnons d'échappée dans la côte de Pech David. Mais @AbraJonas et Mauro Schmid ont toujours une trentaine de… — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 16, 2025 That left the Dutchman in a 'group two' on his own — one where no syndrome is present, just a requirement for sheer effort. The route of this year's Tour de France continues to generate superb racing. Helped, of course, by the relentless effort of the riders. Duncan Alexander After Liege-Bastogne-Liege in April, third-placed Healy walked into the podium area and embraced victor Pogačar, before grabbing the Slovenian by both shoulders. 'When do you retire?' he mock-begged the reigning Tour de France champion. 'Well, I have a contract until 2030,' Pogačar replies. 'So maybe then.' Advertisement Fast-forward three months. Healy is currently wearing the yellow jersey and leading the Tour — ahead of Pogačar. Now, the Irishman has limited pedigree in the high mountains, and it would be a surprise if he retains yellow past Thursday's stage up the Hautacam — but EF have vowed to do everything they can to retain the jersey, despite the faintness of Healy's ultimate GC ambitions. But having seized yellow with a long-range attack, would Healy stay aggressive? 'I think we'll be taking a much more defensive posture at this point in time,' EF team boss Jonathan Vaughters told reporters. 'Of course, I love the very aggressive style that we have, but ultimately we'll honor the jersey, we'll defend the jersey and I'm sure Ben is going to keep the jersey as long as he possibly can. We'll dedicate ourselves to a much more traditional strategy as long we can possibly can do that.' Later, Vaughters stated that he believed a top five finish for Healy was possible — which would represent a shock result. Healy's previous highest finish in a Grand Tour was 27th in last year's Tour. To keep him high on GC, EF's rouleurs — big-engine riders such as Kasper Asgreen, Michael Valgren, and Harry Sweeny — had to keep him safe at the front of the bunch, especially with the aggressive conclusion to Wednesday's stage. Save for one early moment when they were on the wrong side of a brief split in the peloton for 5km — and were summarily told off over the radio by directeur sportif Charly Wegelius — they did that job. Healy finished with the main group of GC favourites, holding onto comfortably over the Côte de Pech David and retained his 29-second lead in yellow. Jacob Whitehead The next day sometimes feels a long time away on the Tour, not least the next year, but the key topic at Soudal-Quickstep's rest day press conference on Tuesday was the subject of Evenepoel's future. Contracted at Soudal-Quickstep until 2026, the 24-year-old double Olympic champion is currently third on GC — but his team are significantly weaker than UAE Team Emirates and Visma Lease-a-Bike. Speculation about Evenepoel's long-term future at the team has run on for months — with INEOS and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe both holding a long-standing interest. Asked directly whether he could guarantee he would be remaining at Soudal-Quickstep next season, Evenepoel replied: 'The year 2026 is still far away. It should be clear that I cannot answer these kinds of things. There is speculation and we have to keep everyone happy. 'I had a big discussion with (CEO) Jurgen Foré about this topic, because he is also worried. We talked about it and everything is clear. So that's the answer I can give.' Advertisement However, it is understood that Evenepoel is set to join Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe next season, with a long-term deal expected to be finalised over the coming months. Red Bull should be able to offer Evenepoel much more climbing support in the high mountains, boasting names such as Primoz Roglic, Florian Lipowitz, and Giulio Pellizzari on their roster, and they possess one of the largest budgets on the WorldTour. Jacob Whitehead Intermarche-Wanty were visited ahead of the stage by former Chelsea and Belgium footballer Eden Hazard, a big cycling fan, who rode up Mount Ventoux in the team's jersey last summer. Second week of the Tour de France 💛 With the support of Eden Hazard 🇧🇪 — Intermarché-Wanty (@IntermarcheW) July 16, 2025 'I used to watch a lot Tour de France, every holiday, every summer, but then when you play football, it's not easy to find time to do cycling,' he told The Athletic at Soudal-Quickstep's bus, where he was a guest of fellow Belgian sporting superstar Evenepoel. 'When I retired two years ago, the first thing I wanted to do was to climb Ventoux. I called my friends, and told them: 'Let's go for that.' When I have time, I have a few friends in Madrid, and we'll still go out riding for a few hours.' Jacob Whitehead The race finally reaches the Pyrenees, taking a steady route to the Col du Soulor before sending the riders up Hautacam for the seventh time in the race's history, a 13.5km climb with an average gradient of 7.8 per cent. Vingegaard put Pogačar to the sword here in 2022 to all but seal his first overall title.
CNA
16-07-2025
- Business
- CNA
EF team happy to be underdogs in battle of cycling's big beasts
TOULOUSE, France :While World Tour giants like UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Visma-Lease a Bike flex their financial muscle at the Tour de France, EF Education-EasyPost team boss Jonathan Vaughters is happy to be chasing in a different kind of pack. "I would laugh if we called ourselves the wolf pack," Vaughters told Reuters, in reference to rival team Soudal Quick-Step's famously aggressive branding. "Maybe we're like the dachshund pack," he added, pointing to his rider Ben Healy's "sausage dog" by the team bus before the start of Wednesday's 11th stage. The metaphor is a light-hearted one, but the economic truth is brutal. EF Education-EasyPost have a budget estimated at less than $25 million, which puts them in the bottom third of the 2025 Tour teams, dominated by defending champion Tadej Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG (around $65 million). Vaughters said competing against cycling's financial behemoths is a constant battle in a sport that lacks regulatory parity. "Professional cycling is one of the few high-level professional sports left in the world that does not have some sort of financial fairness regulation," he said. "And that makes it exceptionally difficult for the middle or the smaller teams to exist." Still, EF has managed to do more than just exist. Helped by their bright pink jerseys, they've been visible, creative, and successful. The team claimed a stage win and won the King of the Mountains (polka dot) jersey last year. This year, they won a stage through Healy, who snatched the overall leader's yellow jersey after Monday's 10th stage. "Last year we won the polka dot jersey. Last year was good, too. People forget we had the yellow jersey one day last year, too. They forget about it. I don't know why," Vaughters said. "But actually, that's an example that those two, three really big teams kind of overshadow everything." STRATEGIC APPROACH EF Education-EasyPost are accountable to a sponsor that views cycling as a measurable marketing tool, not just a passion project. "EF isn't the sponsor that is just here because the owner likes cycling and writes the cheque or whatever," Vaughters said. "EF is here because they view it as more efficient marketing than if they purchased other forms of marketing, okay? So we're actually held to a very high standard when it comes to marketing metrics." That drives the team's strategic approach with EF often avoiding the general classification and sprint battles dominated by big-budget squads, opting instead for opportunistic breakaways and high-impact moments. "What we try to do... is we basically have to come in and think, okay, well, how can we create (a moment)," Vaughters said. "You can't do the same thing every single year. You can't say, 'well, what worked when we were Garmin (more than 10 years ago) will work now'. There are certain cultural things that we keep intact, sort of the lighthearted spirit - the fact that we take the work very seriously, but we don't take ourselves that seriously." It's a culture EF prides itself on — a contrast to the hyper-serious image of other teams. "We take our work every bit as seriously as Soudal," Vaughters said. "But I would laugh if we called ourselves the wolf pack."
