Ben Healy is preparing for the 2026 season, when the spring classics - mainly Strade Bianche and the Ardennes - will be his main goals followed by the Tour. One of the stars of the current generation, he is competing against some of the best riders ever to grace the sport - maybe the very best in Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).
And while doping was once a central part of the preparation for much of the pro peloton, who took copious amounts of performance enhancers, Healy is lucky to be competing in the post-Armstrong era, with much greater efforts being made to catch those who dope.
But that's not to say some riders are not still cheating their way to pro contracts and wins, as a recent series of biological passport cases seems to suggest.
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Healy said while nobody could say any particular sport is completely clean, he believes the record speeds, and sheer intensity of the performances in recent years, have been driven by other factors.
“In any sport I think it’s impossible to go, ‘Oh yeah, the sport is 100% clean,” he said in an interview with the Irish Mirror. "That’s not to take away from anything that the sport and the governing bodies are doing to try and keep it clean and catch people out.
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“Look at Oier Lazkano, everyone’s being tested thoroughly and pretty often to be honest, potentially even more than other sports," he added of the Spanish Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe rider provisionally suspended last year due to biological passport anomalies.
It was pointed out to Healy the average speed of the Tour de France when Armstrong was winning was 41.6kmph, which had increased to an average of 42.8kmph last year. However, the Irish rider believes technology had changed so much, even in the past five years, it was a major factor in driving up the speeds.
Others have also pointed to recent changes in things like nutrition - specifically the amount of carbs riders are now consuming - and even tyres and tyre pressure playing a key part in increasing race speeds. But Healy points to advances with bikes and way teams are set up to race, and how the strongest teams really take it on, often from a long way out.
“I think the biggest thing to attribute to why racing is so fast now – look at the equipment that we’re using now to even when I was racing first year at Under-23 which is only five years ago,” he said.
“The bikes are night and day different almost, that’s the first thing. And then just the way that we’re racing now. Look at UAE, they just set up their train and one by one the riders pull the race along at maximum speed possible. That makes a big difference."
