Ben Healy put up a long-range attack at the UCI World Road Championships in Zürich today before being caught by a select chasing group and attacking repeatedly again in a bid to capture a medal for Ireland.7
And though he looked like he was on a charge today, up the road with Toms Skujiņš (Latvia), chasing eventual winner Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia), the Irish rider said afterwards that nothing everything had gone according to plan.
Though he and Skujiņš combined very well to get to within a minute of Pogačar and hold him for two laps, Healy said the Latvian was stronger than him and he wished he could have done more in their bid to stay clear and take silver and bronze.
In the end they were caught by a six-man chasing group, with Ben O'Connor clipping off from it right before the finish to take silver. Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) won the sprint for bronze, with Skujiņš 4th and Healy in 7th.
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"It was bloody hard, to be honest," Healy said afterwards. "And thank God I was with Toms Skujiņš because he was insanely strong today. I did what I needed to do, but I didn't quite have the legs... just thanks to Toms.
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"I did what I could but, like I say, he had the better legs than me today. I just wished I could contribute a bit more and maybe we could have stayed away.
"But I did what I could and I tried to play my cards in the final, but it wasn't to be, unfortunately," he said, though also saw the quality in a performance that delivered 7th on one of the hardest days of the year among one of the best fields of the season.
"I'm really, really happy with that. I laid it all on the line and it almost paid off and that's all you can ask, I think."
Healy also described as "absolutely insane" the performance of new world champion, Pogačar. Though Healy was on the attack for the last 70km of the race, the Slovenian had made his move 30km earlier; going through the groups ahead until he was alone.
However, in the last few laps of the finishing circuit he never even had a minute's advantage over the nearest chasers, which were Healy and Skujiņš for a long time before they were caught on the last lap by the small chasing group.
"What can you say, just absolutely insane," was Healy's verdict of Pogačar's performance. "I don't think anyone expected him to go with 100km to go today."
