An uber aggressive performer on the bike, but cool and calm off it, Ben Healy has said while he was delighted to win the road race at the National Road Championships today, he needs to regain his condition after the Giro before a planned assault on the remainder of the season.
The 22-year-old EF Education-EasyPost rider will put a lot of his focus on the World Championships in Glasgow in August. After winning the title today in Co Tyrone - going solo for about 100km - he also took the time to set out his other plans for the remainder of the season. That includes significant focus on the World Championships, though he also has other very specific plans.
Today, Healy said he shunned any idea of cooperating in a group in favour of being aggressive a disruptive; hitting his breakaway companions with multiple attacks to wear them down in the hope he could get clear early and not have to worry about attacking his rivals in the final.
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"It's going to be super awesome to wear this jersey for the next year," Healy said after the finish. "The last time I had it I was under 23, so now to have it as a world tour rider... Hopefully I can do it justice."
His plan - continued attacks - worked to perfection after he dragged clear a 15-man group early in the race before splitting that to just six: Rory Townsend (Bolton Equities Black Spoke), Dillon Corkery (CC Etupes), Leo Doyle (ARBO-Headstart ON Fahrrad) and the Bora-hansgrohe duo of Sam Bennett and Ryan Mullen.
While the five riders continued to work behind Healy for a long time, Townsend split that group on the penultimate lap, of six, on the smaller 22km racing circuit. And while Bennett lasted the longest with Townsend, he took was distanced on that penultimate lap. That left Healy leading Townsend by about one minute when they took the bell for the final lap, though the gap was over four minutes on the line.
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Townsend was 4:12 down on the line while Bennett took bronze at 5:49, finishing just ahead of Mullen and Corkery in 4th and 5th.
"I think with the style of course that this is; obviously it's hard, but the climbs aren't super long. So it kind of suited a lot of guys here," Healy said of needing to make it uncomfortable for the other breakaway men from very early in the race.
"I didn't really trust myself to be able to do a 20-30 second burst and really get rid those guys in the final. So in my head it was a case of whittling them down; attacking aggressively, not really coordinating in a group well.
"In the end, they actually just let me go and they didn't follow one of my moves. I think they were hoping that they'd leave me out to dry and that I'd fall behind... and they'd pull me back. I just paced my effort to the finish and it was enough in the end and now I'm here with the jersey so I can be happy with that."
"I'm not going to be racing for a few weeks now. I really need to build back up again after the Giro. A big target for me is going to be the World Championships. You won't see the (national champion's) jersey there unfortunately. But leading into that I'll do San Sebastian and the Canadian races and, hopefully, some of the Italian races at the end of the year."]
Those Canadian races will likely include Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec and Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal in September. The Italian races will likely culminate in Il Lombardia.
