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RTÉ News
26-07-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Tadej Pogacar poised to clinch Tour de France victory as Kaden Groves wins penultimate stage
Australian Kaden Groves completed his set of grand tour stage wins when he prevailed on the Tour de France's penultimate ride, avoiding a crash on slippery roads before powering to a solo triumph on the 184.2km journey from Nantua on Saturday. Groves's bike-handling skills were on display when he managed to stay up as Spain's Ivan Romeo and France's Romain Gregoire skidded out of control in front of him on a wet descent 21 kilometres from the finish. The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider then attacked from a reduced breakaway bunch and never looked back in the remaining 17 kilometres, bursting into tears in a mix of disbelief and exhaustion after the line. Groves, who gave his team their third victory in this year's Tour after Jasper Philipsen and Mathieu van der Poel also won, has seven Vuelta and two Giro d'Italia stage wins to his name. Dutchman Frank van den Broek took second place, 54 seconds behind, with his compatriot Pascal Eenkhoorn third, five seconds further back. Defending champion Tadej Pogacar spent a quiet day in the main peloton and made another step towards a fourth Tour title as he retained his overall leader's yellow jersey with a 4:24 advantage over Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard. The final stage is a 132.3km ride from Mantes-la-Jolie to Paris, where the peloton will cycle up the famous Butte Montmartre three times before the final laps on the Champs-Elysees. Ireland's Ben Healy (EF Education - EasyPost) finished 28th, in the peloton and 7:16 minutes down on Groves and three seconds ahead of the group of Pogacar, Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic and Wout van Aert. That ensures Healy remains ninth overall in the general classification, 27:59 minutes behind Pogacar.
RTÉ News
25-07-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Ben Healy top ten at Tour de France as Thymen Arensman wins stage 19
Ireland's Ben Healy remains ninth in the general classification with two stages remaining at the Tour de France as Thymen Arensman won the final mountain stage of the punishing race in La Plagne. Healy (EF Education - EasyPost) finished Friday's 19th stage 2:19 minutes down on Arensman, crossing the finish line eighth to keep himself in the top 10 of the GC overall. Tadej Pogacar followed Jonas Vingegaard over the line just behind Arensman, a fourth overall crown now looking safe with his lead at four minutes 24 seconds over Vingegaard, who took back a couple of bonus seconds but nothing more on this final opportunity to make major changes to the standings. Healy is 28 minutes and two seconds adrift of Pogacar. It was a second stage win of his debut Tour for Arensman, who had scored a much-needed victory for the Ineos Grenadiers on stage 14 on Superbagneres. UAE Team Emirates-XRG had looked determined to set up Pogacar for what would have been an exclamation mark of a fifth stage victory of this race on the final climb, but Arensman tried a number of attacks and when he went clear with 13km of the climb remaining, he managed to open a gap. His advantage over Pogacar, Vingegaard, Oscar Onley and Florian Lipowitz hovered at around 30 seconds, the sort of margin a fully-fresh Pogacar would be able to close at will, but the fatigue in everyone's legs perhaps told as the anticipated attack from behind never really materialised. It was only when Onley began to struggle that Lipowitz saw his opportunity to finish off the Scot, moving to the front and upping the pace. But even so, Arensman hung on to win by a couple of seconds. "I feel absolutely destroyed," Arensman said. "I can't believe it. Already to win one stage in the Tour was unbelievable from a breakaway, but now to do it against the GC group, against the strongest riders in the world, it feels like I'm dreaming. I don't know what I just did." The discovery of a contagious disease amongst cattle in the area had forced changes to the route, which was shortened from 129.9 kilometres to 95km, removing two climbs but leaving the main tests of the Col du Pre and the finish to La Plagne, still with 3,250m of climbing packed in. Primoz Roglic had been immediately on the attack in an all-or-nothing attempt to move up from fifth overall, but he was caught before the final climb and quickly distanced to move well down, not up, the general classification. With a hilly but not mountainous stage from Nantua to Pontarlier on the menu for Saturday before Sunday's run into Paris - which this year includes the Montmartre climb - there could still be some changes at the sharp end of the general classification but it is difficult to see the podium changing. Outside of the general classification, Healy is 11th in both the points and mountain classifications, and fourth in the youth rankings.
RTÉ News
23-07-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Ben Healy stays in general classification top ten as Jonathan Milan wins 17th stage of Tour de France
Ben Healy remains inside the top ten of the general classification at the Tour de France as Italian Jonathan Milan claimed his second victory in this year's competition when he won a crash-disrupted sprint in the 17th stage on Wednesday. Milan prevailed in a 10-man sprint after the peloton was held up behind a massive crash with just one kilometre to go as riders went down on slippery roads in a rainy finish in southeastern France. Eritrean Biniam Girmay was attended to by race doctors. Tadej Pogacar crossed the finish line safely to retain the overall leader's yellow jersey. Irish rider Healy (EF Education - EasyPost) is ninth overall, 17:52 down on Pogacar after finishing 37th on the stage. Healy is also 11th, seventh and fourth in the points, mountain and youth classifications respectively. His performance on Wednesday follows yesterday's stage when he n arrowly missed out on a second stage win of this year's Tour. Frenchmen Quentin Pacher and Mathieu Burgaudeau as well as Jonas Abrahamsen of Norway and Italian Vincenzo Albanese broke away early 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, edging out Jordi Meeus of Belgium and Denmark's Tobias Lund Andresen, who were 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 de France.
Irish Daily Mirror
10-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
Who is Ben Healy, why is he famous and what's his pet dog called?
What team was he riding for? UCI WorldTeam EF Education–EasyPost. 24, DOB 11/Sept/2000 Kingswinford/Wordsley Ronnie O'Sullivan is Wordsley. It is south-west of Birmingham, you might follow Wolves or Birmingham City, they are equidistant away. His grandparents on his father Bryan's side are from Waterford and Cork and they moved to London in the importantly, has he a gorgeous pet, what's her name? Yes, she is sausage dog called Olive. What were his Irish cycling accomplishments as an amateur? Ben is a two time national champion (once each in the road race and time trial), ridden the road race at the 2020 UCI Road World Championships. Yes, he spent most of a day out in front in the Road Race, had us on the edge of our seats but got swamped at the end and was placed has he been since joining the professional ranks? He has previously won a Giro d'Italia stage (2023). There were podium finishes in Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Amstel Gold Race - second to the 2025 tour de France favourite Tadej Pogacar a junior, he has also had stage wins on Tour de l'Avenir and Baby did he start riding the big races? Healy made his grand tour debut in the 2023 Giro d'Italia, winning his first grand tour stage a week later - featuring a 50k solo break2024 was his first Tour de France, finishing fifth on stage 9 and winning the combativity award on stage 14. What did he say about his Tour de France stage win: "I switched on from the start. Maybe I spent a bit too much [energy] to try to get into the break but that's the way I do it. Once I was in there we really had to work for that gap and we were on the pedals all day. "I knew I needed to get away from the group and picked my moment. I think I timed it well and hopefully caught them by surprise a bit. And then I knew what I had to do: just head down and do my best right to the finish. "This stage suited me down to the ground. It was one I circled from the start and to do it feels amazing. "I grew up watching the Tour, one day wishing I could maybe be there, and to even be here is an achievement. Now to win a stage is so amazing."
The Star
10-07-2025
- Sport
- The Star
Cycling-Healy solos to win Tour stage six, Van der Poel retakes yellow by one second
Cycling - Tour de France - Stage 6 - Bayeux to Vire Normandie - Bayeux, France - July 10, 2025 EF Education - EasyPost's Ben Healy celebrates winning stage 6 REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier FRANCE (Reuters) -Ireland's Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) went alone to win stage six of the Tour de France on Thursday, with Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) wrestling back the leader's yellow jersey from reigning champion Tadej Pogacar. Healy attacked from an eight-man breakaway, which included Van der Poel, with over 40km remaining on the 201.5km ride from Bayeux to Vire Normandie, and pulled away to reach the finish line well ahead of American Quinn Simmons with Australian Michael Storer third. Van der Poel, who lost the overall lead to Pogacar after Wednesday's individual time trial, was unable to keep pace with the breakaway but moved back to the top of the general classification with a gap of one second over the Slovenian champion. (Writing by Trevor StynesEditing by Christian Radnedge)
