Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) has taken the second classification win of his World Tour career with a characteristically aggressive performance on the final stage of Région Pays de la Loire Tour (2.1) in France today. He was very much in the hunt for overall victory right to the finish and once again looked one of the very strongest in the race.
The 22-year-old, who has already taken two wins in recent weeks, went up the road on the 177.8km stage into Le Mans, continually hammering it off the front, just 24 hours after a 120km attack on yesterday's stage 3. While Healy's repeated attacks of the winning breakaway today were not successful in shaking off those he was with, he put up a very impressive display.
He emerged from the stage - the final one of four - shooting up the final general classification by 13 places to 5th, which was enough to secure him victory in the young rider classification. Healy also placed 5th on the stage.
Advertisement
His final haul of results was secured after he got clear in a chasing group on the undulating stage. His five-man group caught the last of the early escapees with about 25km remaining, by which point the race had reached the 9.6km finishing circuit - for five laps - with a very short, but sharp, climb.
Related News
Le vainqueur de la #RouteAdelie Fredrik Dversnes a gagné la 4e et dernière étape du #RegionTour devant Alexander Kamp qui a gagné le général #Region #RegionPaysdelaLoireTour #cyclisme #wielrennen pic.twitter.com/vcweXjqo2f
— 🚴 Les Rois du Peloton 🚲 (@LRoisDuPeloton) April 7, 2023
In that chasing group with Healy were: Alexander Kamp (Tudor Pro Cycling), Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-Samic), Alexis Guerin (Bingoal WB), Jérémy Leveau (Go Sport-Roubaix Lille Métropole) and Valentin Ferron (TotalEnergies). Fredrik Dversnes (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team) got across to them with a strong solo effort, making the catch with just 4km to go.
Healy, who was the last man standing during yesterday's breakaway and was only caught with 2.5km to go, started today's final stage in 18th place and just 24 seconds behind race leader, and stage 1 and 3 winner, Bryan Coquard (Cofidis). The Irishman was clearly intent on taking the overall win today, attacking from the breakaway with 12km to go and again with 4km remaining.
While his surges forward put those he was with under pressure, they managed to hold him, with the fight for the victory coming down to a sprint from the six-man breakaway. Dversnes won from Kamp, with Healy 5th. The breakaway men, who all finished on the same time, were 29 seconds up on the bunch, which had chased frantically.
That time gain meant changes in the overall as Coquard slipped to 7th overall and Kamp ran out the overall winner by 11 seconds from Dversnes with Ferron 3rd at 15 seconds. Healy was 5th at 20 seconds, adding that result to 3rd overall at the recent Coppi e Bartali, where he was also won a stage and was 3rd in the TT, as well as his recent win at GP Industria & Artigianato (1.Pro).
