Ben Healy went into today's Liège-Bastogne-Liège hopeful of a result of a challenging two outings already at Ardennes week but the Irish road race champion finished the day with little to show for his efforts.
His EF Education-EasyPost team mate, Archie Ryan (22), was riding a distance today, at 254km, he had never completed in either training or racing. However, the neo pro committed to working for the team and also finished the race.
For Healy's part, though he was full of aggression deep into the final, when he got himself into a position to take a podium result, he saw it slip away on the last significant obstacle.
And from that point, he was on the back foot; working for the team and ultimately slipping off the back of what remained of the select group. It was a disappointing result for him and ended a week where he hoped things would go better, and Healy did not try to hide it after the finish.
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“Pretty gutted that I couldn’t follow on La Roche-aux-Focon,” he said of having forced a four-man group clear, only to be distanced by Romain Bardet Team dsm-firmenich PostNL, who went on to take the runner-up slot behind dominant winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates).
"I got myself in the right position, I was where I needed to be, but I just lacked a little bit," said Healy of the moment Bardet rode away from him and onto the podium. "Just disappointed because the team did an amazing job today."
Healy and team mate Richard Carapaz rode very strongly, up to a point, during what was always expected to be a key point of the race; the climbs of La Redoute, just inside the 35km to go marker, and Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucon.
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However, while both put in attacks and chased down several moves, when Healy ultimately made a decisive four-man group, it was Bardet who used it as a spring board for success, not the Irish man.
That group comprised of Healy, Bardet Romain Grégoire (Groupama FDJ) and and Benoît Cosnefroy (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team). They pulled out a gap of about 30 seconds on the group they had left, with Pogačar about one minute ahead of them on the road.
While Healy stepped up to take on more than his share of the work, when his group hit the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucon, crested just 13km from the finish, Bardet went forward as Healy, Grégoire and Cosnefroy went backwards.
That trio was caught by the chasers as Bardet dangled between 10 and 20 seconds ahead of them, and Pogačar was almost two minutes ahead and powering is way to victory. The attacks, chasing and lulls in the group of Healy ensured Bardet very gradually pulled away from them to gain and advantage that secured 2nd place.
Healy went to the front of his group, now clearly working for Carapaz, and proceeded to empty the tank before slipped off the back. However, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who was clearly well below his best today, came charging through with several riders in tow, absorbing Healy and getting up to the group chasing Bardet.
And that's how it stayed to the finish, Pogačar winning by 1:39 from Bardet, with Van der Poel claiming the sprint for 3rd place from the group, some 2:02 down. The world champion just about held off Maxim Van Gils (Lotto Dstny) and Aurélien Paret-Peintre (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team) for the final place on the podium.
Carapaz and Healy were right at the back of that group, in 26th and 27th, having fought the good fight but ultimately failed in their mission to make the podium and even win the race. Ireland's Ryan, who did very well to finish, was 55th at 13:10.
