Ben Healy “gutted” after TT effort derailed at World Champs | Sticky Bottle

*Ben Healy had put a lot of effort into preparing for today's U23 TT at the World Championships in Flanders but was hit by illness (Photo: Sean Rowe)*

Ben Healy has expressed his disappointment with his ride in the U23 TT at the World Road Championships today after falling ill in recent days. The Irish champion felt empty during the race against the clock and in the second half of the 30.3km TT into Bruges he was throwing up on the bike.

In the end he was 31^st, some 1:59 down on new world champion Johan Price-Pejtersen (22) of Denmark. The result was a long way off what Healy is capable of as he was 2^nd in the TT at the Baby Giro this year; beaten for victory by less than one second.

He would have been expected to take a result today had he not been ill and his disappointment was clear after the event.

“I’m pretty gutted to be honest. People who have been around me and people who help me know how much I have put into this,” he said of preparing for today’s race against the watch.

“I just didn’t perform because I picked up a bit of an
illness a few days ago. On course I didn’t have any legs and on the second half
I was actually physically throwing up. It was just one of those days to forget
I think for me really.”

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Despite his disappointment, Healy (21) said he was now looking to recover and be ready to go again in the U23 road race in Flanders on Friday.

“I know the form was there before this so hopefully with
another few days rest before the road race will sort me out,” he said.

“The road race is quite steady to start with so hopefully
that will be a good bit of an opener to get me into it and hopefully I will be
able to get stuck in when the race starts to kick off.”

Ireland's Kevin McCambridge, who placed 39^th in the U23 TT today, said he was happy with his performance, though he felt he still had some tweaking to do with his pacing.

“The forecast was giving a bit of a tailwind but I didn’t
really feel much of a tailwind to be honest,” he said. “I was happy with how I
performed because last week at the Europeans I started a bit too hard and
suffered towards the end.

“But I think this time I started a little too easy and
finished a lot stronger than I should have. I think now it’s just trying to
find somewhere in the middle that I can get in all that effort.”