Ben Healy has been money in the bank for his trade teams since his U23 days and during the spring made the transition to top tier pro rider with a series of storming rides in the classics and two wins in Italy. But today - in Italy again - the 22-year-old Irishman surpassed himself, claiming stage 8 of Giro d'Italia with a 50km solo breakaway.
He sailed over the line in Fossombrone in central Italy, after 207km of racing, celebrating his third win of the season some 1:49 up on the other survivors from the early breakaway and with the best of the general classification men 4:34 behind him. It was a class performance from a bike rider who has only begun to show us what he can do, with the Irish rider today saying there were more chances for him on this Giro.
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The EF Education-EasyPost man said he felt he had squandered a chance on stage 4 to take a stage win - and maybe more - but had made amends today. "I got a bit over-excited the other day and it was a nice opportunity to maybe go into the pink jersey as well; which I was kind of kicking myself for," he said. "I really had to sit down and just learn from those mistakes and today I put that into practice. I ended up in the break and and was able to finish off in the end."
Healy went all-out at the start today again, but with a harder start and with cumulative fatigue now in everyone's legs, when the breakaway selection was made, he was among the 13 riders in that group. He then took flight soli on the first passage of the Cappuccini climb, on ramps of 14 per cent and with 51km to go, and simply never looked back.
"I was pretty eager to get in the break and I just followed the moves to start with," he said of today's race. "It was a pretty hard fought battle to get up in in the break, with the peloton really keen to keep us close and lots of teams wanting to be in the break."
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Healy continued: "Eventually we got away and we just tapped it through until we came to the first circuits. On the first Cappuccini climb, on that last little bit, I just wanted to test the legs a bit, and test everyone else. I pressed on a little bit and I ended up going solo. No one came with me and I thought 'this is a good day'.
"I knew I can time trial to the finish pretty well and I just paced myself all the way and the gap kept on going out. I knew I had it (won) when I came to the Cappuccini to the finish and I just placed my effort well and then just really soaked in the victory."
Asked why he attacked so far out, Healy laughed: "If you can go solo it's always better. I know in big groups like this, group dynamics can play a pretty big role in the finish. And I blacked myself for a long move and I didn't want to take any chances today. So, yeah, I went solo and I managed to hold it to the finish."
Healy had already won two races this year - GP Industria & Artigianato and a stage at Coppi e Bartali - as well as placing 2nd in both Brabantse Pijl and Amstel Gold Race before rounding off his spring with 4th in Liège-Bastogne-Liège. When asked about his season to date, he sounded like he was still trying to process it.
"This past couple of months has been an absolute whirlwind and to top it off with this in insane, really," he said. "It took me a lot to recover after Liège, I really had to back off for a good week and a half. So I was a little bit unsure coming to this Giro and maybe I still didn't feel like I'm quite on top of my game. But, for sure, I had really good legs today.
"I just really need to enjoy these past couple of months and let it sink in, what I've done. I think we can go from there and and just race with confidence in the future and and turn on to races with yeah an expectancy to perform and do well. I can take the next couple of days really easy and let it soak in, like I say, but then we have to go again for another couple of weeks and for sure there's more opportunities."
