Ben Healy has jumped into the top 10 in the final general classification at Région Pays de la Loire Tour (2.1) after proving instrumental in his EF Education-EasyPost team taking the final stage and the overall classification victory.
Healy was among a group of nine riders to pull clear of the rest of the field during a very aggressive final 10km on the finishing circuits around Le Mans after 175km of racing.
And after making that front group, which gained time after all-out attacks on the climbs on the final lap, he worked to keep the group together. He then gave a final lead-out to his team mate Marijn van den Berg, who swept the boards as a result.
The Dutch rider, who had also won stage 1, took the overall victory today from race leader and stage 2 winner, Ewen Costiou (Arkéa-B&B Hotels). As van den Berg had trailed Costiou by only one second starting out this morning, the race for the final yellow jersey was also going to go to the line.
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Van den Berg was awarded 10 seconds for his stage win and gained three bonus seconds during the stage. He also took another three seconds on Costiou at the finish as the French rider was on the wrong side of a small gap in the front group in the final sprint to the line.
That all meant Van der Berg, who was also aided team by Darren Rafferty, finished the race at the top of the standings some 15 seconds ahead of runner-up Costiou.
Fredrik Dversnes (Uno-X Mobility) was 3rd at 21 seconds and Benoît Cosnefroy (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) 4th at 24 seconds.
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Today, the stage victory went to Van den Berg from Cosnefroy, in a tight sprint, with Clément Venturini (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) in 3rd place. Healy finished at the back of the front group, in 9th place and some five seconds down on his stage-winning team mate.
However, the next group home was a further 28 seconds back, meaning Healy gained enough time on other well-placed general classification riders to jump to 20 places to 7th in the final general classification, at 35 seconds.
Sam Bennett (AG2R La Mondiale) was in the second group on the road today, which numbered just 13 riders, and he placed 8th in the final GC, one place and 21 seconds down on Healy.
While Healy and Rafferty were perhaps expected the feature more prominently in the general classification fight, the small climbs on the course over the last four days did not prove enough to split the field.
The only real splits occurred today on the climbs on the final lap, and when Van der Berg made the nine-man front group, and was already virtual yellow jersey on the road coming into the sprint, Healy threw his weight behind his team mate. Those efforts ended in another stage win and overall success for the team.
Today, Rafferty was also on team duties earlier in the stage before finishing 46th, in a group 5:38 down. He ended the race in 43rd at 6:08.
