In this new Thereabouts film, Ben Healy discusses his career to date, fame, his ambitions and his hunger to get more from the sport
Ben Healy features in this new documentary, The Individualist, which has been published by his EF Education-EasyPost team. The 23-minute piece, below, is a Thereabouts film by Angus Morton.
Thereabouts also produced the movie about Australian brothers, Angus and Lachlan Morton, who is still an EF Education-EasyPost rider, which followed them as they rode across Australia.
The new Healy film has been published on the eve of the Tour de France. It follows Healy as he prepares for his racing, from the start of the season, with appearances by others, including his dad, Brian.
It also features footage of Healy as a kid on his local outdoor track in Britain, where he first began training and racing.
"I don't think I ever knew that I was really good, but I was hungry for it," Healy says, as he prepares for the season in the altitude hotel in Calpe.
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"I really wanted it and I never want to lose that, but I know how to temper that (hunger) now."
He added taking the yellow jersey on last year's Tour "really took me by surprise" because it was "an elusive thing, the stars have got to align, and you really can't predict that".
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"I want to say 'I'm Ben Healy, and I'm still the person I always have been'. And I definitely am. But people treat me differently now. I don't think I'll ever adapt to it, but I think I can become more comfortable with it."
Ben's dad says in the documentary he knows his son "struggles with the fame side of things", adding he is down to earth and was "not been brought up to be showy".
Brian also said his son was "in a dark place" when he was let go for the Great Britain Academy, where he was an MTB rider, as he had "put his heart and soul into it, he was gutted".
However, it was at that point that Healy teamed up with coach Jacob Tipper, who provided him with support and guidance after he'd been dropped.
Healy said he sent his CV out to lots of teams and also declared for Ireland, which helped him get onto the UCI composite team for Tour de l'Avenir.
That was as a first-year U23, in 2019, and Healy won a stage on the French race - regarded as the U23 Tour de France. He became the youngest rider in the long and storied history of the iconic race to win a stage.
"That was, like, the first breakthrough moment," Healy says.
This is well, well worth a watch.
The Individualist | Ben Healy
