Ben Healy of EF Education-EasyPost was on the attack today on what was Tour de France 2026's longest stage (Photo: Charly López)
Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) hasn't had the smoothest ride on the Tour de France so far as soaring temperatures, and missing a few percentage on his normally bulletproof form, have conspired against him.
But last year's stage winner and yellow jersey was on the attack during the longest stage of the race today, at 205.8km to Belfort.
Once in that large group, he also tried to take the breakaway men by surprise as they were almost eight minutes up. However, though Healy made the best of it today, he was marked closely by some of the biggest riders in the move.
Quinten Hermans was straight on to him, snuffing out Healy’s attack on behalf of his Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling's team leader Tom Pidcock. Kévin Vauquelin (Netcompany Ineos) also immediately responded, not giving the Irishman an inch.
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👀 Head-to-head in the final kilometre...
👀 Mano a mano dans le dernier kilomètre...#TDF2026 | @Continental_fr pic.twitter.com/IOL0DhjOG5
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 17, 2026
That action by Healy - off the front of a breakaway that at one point numbered more than 50 riders - came with about 50km remaining on the stage.
And while that was within Healy's range for solo attacks, when he was in song, his move today was perhaps not designed to take on the race very early and ride away to victory.
He was trying to get away on the Col des Croix, just before the main climb of the day, the 9.1km Ballon d'Alsace averaging 6.8 per cent.
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Healy has spoken of trying to catch his rivals by surprise and make his racing unpredictable on this year's Tour. But, usually, he would have waited for the final climb, or just before it, until he made a move.
Tom Pidcock got into the massive group that went off the front today and gained 6:30 to set himself up for a general classification ride (Photo: Charly López)
His attack today seemed like he was hoping to get ahead a little before the last climb began, perhaps not trusting himself to be able to go with early attacks early on that mountain.
After he was closed down, he slipped back into the front section of the group but went out the back about 13km later.
With such a chunk of climbing to come, there was little chance of getting back into the group on the final descent, especially as the pressure was on and the group was blowing to pieces.
Going over the top of the final mountain, the group was down to just eight riders, though it then swelled a little a few men go back on. With about 15km to go, Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) and Harold Tejada (XDS Astana) got away.
Race leader Tadej Pogačar may have lost time to Tom Pidcock, but that will not bother him in the slightest (Photo: Thomas Maheux)
They went to the line, where Schmid won the two-up sprint just two seconds up on the chasers, led in my Pidcock, one of the day's big winners.
The British rider, who gained 7:30 on the general classification group, has shot up the overall standings by six places to 4th.
He is now 4:15 down on race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) but is only 39 seconds down on Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) in 2nd overall.
For his part, Healy finished 31st on the stage, some 6:30 down on the winner and just over one minute ahead of the GC group ahead of a big weekend of climbing.
