Having announced his arrival into cycling's top tier with incredible performances during the spring, Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) has now put in a monster ride on Giro d'Italia to win stage 8 into Fossombrone.
The 22-year-old today became the second youngest Irish rider to win a Grand Tour stage, behind only the great Sean Kelly, who won his first Grand Tour stage on the 1978 Tour de France.
After attacking the 13-man breakaway today on the first passage of the Cappuccini climb on ramps of 14 per cent - with 51km still remaining on the 207km stage - Healy rode hard and got clear. From that point, he not only powered away from the breakaway men but also put time into the remains of the peloton, even though it was racing hard.
As Healy went into the final 10km today, he had two minutes on the breakaway riders he had dropped and also had an advantage of six minutes over the remains of the peloton, even though that gap was 5:30 when his solo attack started out with 51km to go.
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Healy had been very active on this Giro already and today on the undulating opening phase of the stage he was again firing himself off the front. But this time, unlike recent days, he finally made it into the main breakaway of the day.
In that move with Healy were: Toms Skujiņš (Trek-Segafredo), Filippo Zana (Team Jayco AlUla), Alessandro Iacchi (Team Corratec-Selle Italia), Warren Barguil (Team Arkéa Samsic), Carlos Verona (Movistar Team), Derek Gee (Israel Premier Tech), Alessandro Tonelli (Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè), Mattia Bais (EOLO-Kometa), François Bidard (Cofidis), Samuele Battistella (Astana Qazaqstan Team), Oscar Riesebeek (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Valentin Paret-Peintre (AG2R Citroën Team).
On the climb of the Cappuccini, for the first passage, Healy attacked hard with 51km to go, just a couple of hundred metres from the top of the ascent. While there was a modest reaction from some of the others, Healy immediately went clear; the others simply unable to match him.
He quickly settled into a fierce pace on the head of the race and time checks began to show 40 seconds and then up to one minute. With 40km to go, Healy had 1:40 over a five-man chasing group with the main field 5:30 behind him. In the five-man chasing group were: Mattia Bais (EOLO-Kometa), Derek Gee (Israel Premier Tech), Carlos Verona (Movistar Team), Warren Barguil (Team Arkéa Samsic) and Filippo Zana (Team Jayco AlUla).
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🚴🇮🇹 | Ruim voor het gevecht tussen de favorieten komt Ben Healy solo aan in Fossombrone! De Ier van EF Education EasyPost was met afstand de beste uit de kopgroep. 🔥🔥 #Giro
📺 Koers kijk je op discovery+ pic.twitter.com/dD6jcdeP1c— Eurosport Nederland (@Eurosport_NL) May 13, 2023
When Healy hit the Cappuccini climb for the second ascent with 7km to go, he had 2:11 on the five chasers and 6:45 on the remains of the peloton; gaps that reflected Healy's reserves all the way into the final phase of the stage. That was despite being on the attack from the gun and despite being on his own for so long.
Healy then continued to power his way towards the finish line solo to win. He never looked like faltering, indeed he appeared stronger than the chasers even though they were combining in pursuit of the lone Irishman leading the way.
In the end, Healy took plenty of time to savour his stage win, with Derek Gee (Israel Premier Tech) bringing in the chasers for 2nd place from Filippo Zana (Team Jayco AlUla).
GC battle behind Healy
Back in the remains of the main field - which was whittled right down by the late climbs - Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) attacked on the last climb, managing to get clear of his rivals, including the fancied Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep).
However, Evenepoel and race leader Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM) were first to respond and though they got close to Roglic, they could not catch him and were themselves caught by the chasing group, including Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco AlUla).
As Roglič went over the top of the climb, it was Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) who had closed right up to him, with Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) then also catching them to form a three man group putting time into Evenepoel over the last 3-4km.
Evenepoel was on the front of the chasing group as Roglič powered away, with Geoghegan Hart and Thomas not helping him. Evenepoel pulled clear behind with Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Victorious) and João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), though he was briefly dropped by them.
On the line, the Roglič only put 14 seconds into the Evenepoel group - which included Ireland's Dunbar - but world champion Evenepoel has now shown his first weakness on the race.
Lots more to come.
