Ben Healy rode to 12th place after an attacking ride in pursuit of solo winner Tadej Pogačar yesterday at Strade Bianche. But the Irish champion said while the Slovenian's attack, 81km from the finish, was well telegraphed, it was simply impossible to respond to.
Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) was on the wheel of Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) when he surged off the front on the 11.5km Monte Sante Marie gravel section. But while the American made an initial effort to go with him, Pogačar quickly had a big gap.
And Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) said while the chasing group was large at that stage, with some very talented bike riders in there, they were powerless to respond; the Irish rider's challenge later in the 215km race not helped by a crash.
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“I tried to do an aggressive race and it didn’t quite work out, I paid for it in the final,” Healy said, adding the group was relegated to a battle for 2nd place after Pogacar’s attack.
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“We could see it coming, but when he went no one had the legs to go,” Healy explained, while later going on the attack repeatedly from the 50km to go marker.
“It was just a slog at the finish and whoever had any legs left was there.That’s racing. I did what I could.”
EF Education-EasyPost sports director, Matti Breschel, felt Healy and his team mates had ridden well, but explained they were best with set-backs.
“The team was really on it from the first sector,” Breschel said. “Then, we had a number of mechanicals at very critical moments and from there on we were kind of on the back foot and started chasing.
"Richard fell down. Mikkel fell. Ben ended up in the final, but crashed afterwards as well and kind of lost his mojo a little bit, so it was not really our day. But that is part of cycling isn’t it? The riders followed the plan and were super organized. Sometimes it turns into nothing unfortunately.”
