EF Education Nippo team boss, Jonathan Vaughters, has said he signed Ben Healy for his racing instincts and his ability to take his chances when he creates them. The young Irishman has just agreed a two-year deal with the WorldTour team.
Healy, who turned 21-years-old last month, has taken a series of wins since turning U23; each time getting into breakaways and then riding away solo.
He first did it at Tour de l’Avenir in 2019, becoming the youngest ever winner of a stage on the race. Healy then repeated that success last year when he won a stage at Ronde de l'Isard and also took victory at the National Road Race Championships.
This season he won the final stage of the Baby Giro; again getting clear in a breakaway and picking his time to attack and ride on to win solo.
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Aside from his racer’s abilities, Healy is also a very
good TT rider and was beaten by less than one second for TT victory in the Baby
Giro this year. The man who beat him, Filippo Baroncini of Italy, won the U23
TT world title two weeks ago.
“His skill set is that he knows how to get in breaks that make it to the line and he knows how to win out of those breaks once he’s in them,” Vaughters said of Healy.
“There aren’t that many guys that have that skill set. That’s the skill that Ben’s shown over and over again in the U23 races. I do see him in the light of a guy who can win races.
"That doesn’t mean there aren’t going to be periods where he has to work for other people. He has a good nose for how to win a race. That’s why we’re hiring him.”
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For his part, Healy said he was delighted to be moving to
EF Education Nippo after two years with Trinity Racing.
“When I started to talk with the team, it was clear the
team had a plan for me,” Healy said. “That meant so much to me. It wasn’t just,
‘Yeah, he’s got a few decent results, might as well just sign him.’ There was
thought behind where I’d fit into the team.
“I don’t want to be going to a team just doing my job. I don’t want to be riding around for a paycheck. I want to be a part of a team. I’d like to go and be on the bus and have a laugh with everyone. I see this within the team and that’s something that really appealed to me."
Healy said races with medium climbs appeared to suit him best. He added when he was regarded as having little or no chance, he had enjoyed taking on that challenge.
“I feel like a lot of the time I’m a bit of
an underdog going into a race. That’s just given me the hunger to carry on with
it,” he said, using his 2019 stage win at Tour de l’Avenir as an example.
“I didn’t even get a team, I managed to scrape my way onto the UCI team and I was going there for experience. I managed to pull off a stage win. That feeling of ‘I’m really here to be competitive’ was such a nice feeling and having the title of being the youngest person ever to win a stage was pretty cool as well.
“The 15 to 30 minute climbs, when it’s just a hard day
out, I normally do pretty well when it’s really grim like that,” he said.
“Stepping up to
this new level will be a new challenge and a new way to race. I just want to
learn everything and try to pick up as much as I can from these big names that
I’ll be teammates with. I’m very excited for it. And the equipment and the kit
aren’t too bad either.”
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