Ireland's five-time Grand Tour stage winner, and monument winner, Dan Martin has expressed his admiration for Ben Healy, saying when he was riding he wasn't able to do what Healy is currently doing in the sport.
And Martin, who retired at the end of 2021, also encouraged Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) to do his reovery ride on the Tour de France rest day tomorrow in the new yellow jersey he claimed today on the road to Le Mont-Dore Puy de Sancy after 150km on the attack.
"I think the fact he dragged those (other breakaway) guys the last 25k and still finished 3rd on the stage, it shows the form that he's in… He's the guy inform," said Martin, who is currently working at the Tour de France.
"What he did on stage six already… I managed to get to him after the finish in between podium and doping control, and he was like, speechless… 'what just happened basically. And then to do this…
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"And I'm really happy for the team. It's also the team that I started in, and they always seem to go beyond expectations and manage the pull something out of the hat. And I'm sure they had that all planned this morning, to try and do that (take yellow). Putting four guys in the break, it started from that moment. And (Healy) managed to finish it off, somehow."
Though Martin was among the best riders of his generation, he said when he looked at the way Healy was able to race, he believed he simply was not able to do that himself during his own career, despite his success.
"I couldn't, definitely, do what he does," Martin told ITV Cycling. "These long breakaways, this ability to maintain a super aero position and a high power output for so long, it's just incredible. He obviously trains that ability.
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"I just hope he gets to enjoy the rest day being in the yellow jersey. It's probably the best day because obviously he's got a day to enjoy it. We'll see if he does a recovery ride in the jersey, I probably would, being honest," Martin laughed. "And then he gets to ride the stage into Toulouse (on Wednsday) and hopefully he keeps it after that as well."
Martin said he was unsure how long Healy could hold the yellow jersey, especially as stage 12 on Thursday finished on Hautacam, where race favourites Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) were likely to be very strong.
Healy now leads by 29 seconds from Pogačar, who he took the yellow jersey from today. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal QuickStep) is 3rd at 1:29 and Vingegaard 4th at 1:46.
Martin added though he assumed Wednesday's stage to Toulouse was one for the sprinters, when he more closely examined the course he realised how hard it was, with repeated small climbs - seven in the final 50km.
"I do think the big favorites will be thinking of Hautacam which comes the day after," Martin said when asked about the prospects off Healy holding yellow for a time.
"Obviously he doesn't have much advantage over Tadej Pogačar, and we've seen how strong him and Vingegaard are at the moment. They took a minute out of Ben on the last climb (today), really playing cat and mouse.
"He'll just enjoy every moment in this jersey, I know he will… And he'll just savour it as it might never happen again, he's got to enjoy it."
