Ben Healy has emerged from the Tour of Slovenia with a fine stage win under his belt, which has come just at the right time and he is expected to be named on the EF Education-EasyPost team for a debut ride in the Tour de France.
The Irish champion lost some time at the very end of the queen stage on Saturday, but he went out yesterday and rode in his characteristic full-gas attacking manner for most of the last 50km.
Healy initially got clear in a chasing group that closed down to the breakaway and put in a volley of attacks before going clear solo close to the finish and taking a brilliant victory, by 15 seconds from the chasing group containing his Irish team mate, Archie Ryan.
“I know how I can win, I know how I like to win, and it was always the plan to go full gas on the first climb and try and catch them by surprise," Healy said.
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"In the end, I managed to go solo and then they caught me on the last climb of the day but the GC guys were playing silly buggers and I managed to get a gap and hold it to the line.After losing time on the GC yesterday, I was out here to take revenge today."
Healy also paid tribute to his team, which also rode hard for him on Saturday, as his win yesterday followed more team work, especially by Ryan and Yuhi Todome.
"To finish it off on the last day like this with a nice crowd in a nice place, it’s been a really great race. Slovenia’s a nice place to race a bike," said Healy.
How the race was won
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With a large breakaway group, of 15 riders, up the road as the business of the final stage began, Healy set out his stall early in the final and attacked with almost 50km to go.
That move saw general classification contender Paul Double (Polti-Kometa) attack after him, with forced race leader Giovanni Aleotti into a chase; the Bora-hansgrohe man riding defensively from that point but holding on to win overall.
When the winner of Saturday's stage, Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), joined the attack off the front, they added to the firepower. However, that also ensured the chase behind was intense as Bilbao had started the stage 2nd overall at just 12 seconds.
With about 12km to go, the Healy group had mopped up the last of the early breakaway men before the Irishman attacked on the steep 1.5km climb of Trška Gora.
Healy powered over the top of that climb with Martin Marcellusi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizane) and Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers) in tow, and with just 10 seconds over the chasers.
However, things would change again at the front, when race leader Aleotti and the Bahrain Victorious due to Bilboa and Matej Mohorič got across to the Healy group.
But the Irish champion put in another attack as the race dipped inside the 3km to go marker and this time the elastic snapped; Healy powering in solo to win. There was then a regrouping behind, with Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) winning the sprint for 2nd place from a large chasing group.
Orluis Aular (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) was 3rd with Slovenians Luka Mezgec (Team Jayco AlUla) and Matej Mohorič (Bahrain-Victorious) 4th and 5th.
Aleotti finished in the group 15 seconds down on Healy and so retained the race lead to wrap up overall victory, with Ryan also in that group and finishing 9th on the stage.
