Ben Healy has won a stage of the Tour de l'Avenir but also endured bad luck that has cost him a much higher place overall.
The Irish cyclist was victorious on yesterday's stage 5; attacking the winning breakaway with 5km to go and holding them off to win.
He joined Stephen Roche and his son Nicolas Roche in a select group of Irish riders to win a stage on the race known as the U23 Tour de France.
On today's stage 6 Healy was not at the front but he gave a very good account of himself on day when the rain came down again and the field split to pieces.
Healy got over the opening climb on today’s stage – 124km
from Saint-Julien-Chapteuil to Privas – in the leading group.
However, while he climbed with the best on that ascent he
came undone when a crash occurred racing off the climb.
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That fall caused a split in the group, with Healy caught on the wrong side of it and never seeing the front group again.
Eventually a group containing some of the favourites,
including Tom Pidcock (Great Britain), forged clear, without yellow jersey Simon
Guglielmi (France).
That group finished just over two minutes ahead of the
next riders on the road, though a crash at the end took out Pidcock.
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Stefan Bissegger (Switzerland) won the stage from the breakaway, seeing off Australian Kaden Groves.
American rider Matteo
Jorgenson was 3rd; the same position he had taken 24 hours earlier when Healy
won the day.
Today the Irish rider was among the stronger riders who
failed to make the front group; finishing in 30th at 2:50.
Darragh O’Mahony, the Irish U23 champion who is riding
the race on the UCI composite team with Healy, was further back; in 96th at
20:24.
However, he has suffered some bad luck so far and will
look to get up the road in coming days, as he has done on this race in the last
two years.
Healy himself suffered bad luck on stage 3; a rider
switching across him leading in the final climbing taking a number of spokes
out of his front wheel.
That cost him his place in the front group and he would
lose 3:19, finishing back in 88th place. But for that, he would now be in the
top 20 overall. Currently Healy is 30th at 6:26.
The yellow jersey in the race changed hands today and as
the man who held it this morning, Guglielmi, lost 3:15.
That meant the race lead has passed to Italy’s Giovanni
Aleotti, who placed 15th on today’s stage some 46 seconds behind the winner.
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