Ben Healy was a reserve rider for EF Education-EasyPost at Paris-Roubaix and when he wasn't need on the rider roster he got stuck in and helped out his team mates from the road side; becoming a soigneur for the day.
The Irish rider then rode De Brabantse Pijl (1.Pro) yesterday and continued his incredible run of results; animating the race off the front of the bunch, and then repeatedly attacking the breakaway, before eventually finishing in 2nd place.
Afterwards he set out his goals for the weeks ahead, saying he would now move on to the Ardennes Classics before a hoped-for first Grand Tour start at Giro d'Italia in a little over three weeks time.
The Ardennes Classics get underway this Sunday with Amstel Gold, before La Flèche Wallonne next Wednesday and then Liège-Bastogne-Liège three days later.
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"I was more nervous than the riders," Healy said of handing up bottles from the roadside during Sunday's Paris-Roubaix. "They were coming at 50km per hour and it's not as easy as you think, so big up to the soigneurs."
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He added while he was very happy with his 2nd place at De Brabantse Pijl in Belgium yesterday, he always felt Dorian Godon (AG2R Citroën Team) would have the edge on him in the final sprint when they arrived at the finish together having dropped the rest of the breakaway.
"It was nice, I could feel the legs were good," he said of the 205km race, the last 55km of which he took a very aggressive approach to. "I gave it a good go but there was a guy just as strong as me. And in the gallop to the line, I always knew how that was going to go.
"But I still gave it a really good go and tried to play the game as best I could," he added of putting Godon on the front in the final 2km. "It wasn't to be, but I left it all out there. I knew I hadn't go the best sprint in the world so I just had to try and sit on and hopefully save the legs as best as possible. But when he opened up, I just had nothing to give and that was that."
Healy said he had "made a good step up over the winter", and that is clear to see in his results of late, despite missing six weeks of racing due to a broken finger. He was 3rd in his first race of the season - Trofeo Calvia (1.1) in Mallorca at the end of January - before the crash on stage 2 of Etoile de Bessèges.
He then returned to racing in flying form, with a stage win - and 3rd place in the TT and 3rd overall - at Coppi a Bartali. That was followed by victory at GP Industria & Artigianato, the day after Coppi e Bartali concluded.
"I'm feeling a lot more confident in myself, which is super nice," he said. "I do the Ardennes now and that's a pretty big goal for the team and then hopefully onto the Giro after that."
