Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) has completed the biggest week of his career with a fine ride against the clock that lifted him onto the final podium at Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali.
The 22-year-old comes away from the race with a stage victory - his first international win at pro level - as well as his 3rd place overall and victory in the young rider classification. And while those results are a breakthrough for him, what stood out this last week was his form and versatility.
He climbed with the best, was among the most aggressive and found a sprint, to win stage 3, when he needed it before finishing off the effort with a great TT today. The latter was hardly surprising considering past results and the fact he is Irish champion.
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Healy went into the TT stage today - some 18.6km in Carpi - in 6th place overall and 44 seconds down on race leader Mauro Schmid (Soudal-QuickStep). James Shaw, Healy's team mate at EF Education-EasyPost, was 2nd overall at 14 seconds.
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Those three looked like the best TT riders in the top 10 and it seemed near certain they would fill the final podium, which is precisely what came to pass.
The TT was won by former French champion, and Coppi e Bartali stage 1 winner last Tuesday, Rémi Cavagna (Soudal-QuickStep). Australina Michael Hepburn (Team Jayco AlUla) pulled a strong ride out of the bag to finish 2nd, some 18 seconds down on the winner. Healy was next; in 3rd place and 19 seconds off Cavagna's winning time.
Race leader Schmid was 8th, some 41 seconds down, while Shaw was a little further back; 10th on the stage at 43 seconds. Those times meant Healy jumped from 6th to 3rd and also closed right up on Schmid and Shaw, though not by enough to overhaul them.
Schmid ran out the winner by 16 seconds from Shaw with Healy 3rd at 22 seconds. Mark Padun was 4th overall, at 1:06, meaning EF Education-EasyPost filled places 2nd to 4th on the final general classification. Then came 21-year-old Leo Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers), 5th on GC at 1:19, followed by 40-year-old Domenico Pozzovivo (Israel-Premier Tech), 6th at 1:35.
