Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) may have been found wanting at the pointy end of Tour of Slovenia queen stage yesterday but the Irish champion has made up for it today with a fantastic victory on the final stage of the race.
Healy was not in the original breakaway on today's 157km stage from Šentjernej to Novo Mesto but managed to bridge across in a chasing group. And though the enlarged breakaway was caught, the Irish rider attacked from it before the catch was made.
With a trademark aggressive display, he then put his head down and produced a powerful flat-out TT-style effort all the way to the line to claim what was his first win of the 2024 season.
His form today, and the fact he now has a confidence-boosting win in the bag, bodes very well for what is expected to be his first appearance in the Tour de France, which gets underway in a fortnight.
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On the line today Healy was the only one of the attackers who had not been caught by the large chasing group. He claimed victory by 15 seconds ahead of that 25-man chase group, which was led in by Alexander Kristoff, the Uno-X Mobility rider who had been on the attack for much of the day.
Orluis Aular (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) was 3rd with Slovenians Luka Mezgec (Team Jayco AlUla) and Matej Mohorič (Bahrain-Victorious) 4th and 5th.
Though the race leader, Giovanni Aleotti (Bora-hansgrohe) was put under real pressure today, he finished in the group 15 seconds down on Healy and so retained the race lead to wrap up overall victory.
He was put on the ropes when general classification rivals Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) and Paul Double (Team Polti Kometa) joined Healy on the attack, though they eventually went back to the peloton as Healy continued to press forward on his way to stage victory.
Healy's team mate, Archie Ryan, also enjoyed a strong final stage today as he was among the chasing group just behind his stage-winning team mate and took 9th on the stage.
Healy's time gains today, and the time bonus for winning the stage, moved him up two places overall to a final 7th, some 44 seconds down on winner Aleotti.
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Irish national champion, Ben Healy cruises to victory in Stage 5 of the Tour of Slovenia! ?#TourOfSlovenia ?? pic.twitter.com/5BEfvFgeyu
— Eurosport (@eurosport) June 16, 2024
With a large breakaway group, of 15 riders, up the road as the business of the final stage began, Healy set out his stall early in the final and attacked with almost 50km to go.
That move saw general classification contender Paul Double (Polti-Kometa) attack after him, with forced race leader Giovanni Aleotti into a chase; the Bora-hansgrohe man riding defensively from that point but holding on to win overall.
When the winner of Saturday's stage, Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), joined the attack off the front, they added to the firepower. However, that also ensured the chase behind was intense as Bilbao had started the stage 2nd overall at just 12 seconds.
With about 12km to go, the Healy group had mopped up the last of the early breakaway men before the Irishman attacked on the steep 1.5km climb of Trška Gora.
Healy powered over the top of that climb with Martin Marcellusi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizane) and Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers) in tow, and with just 10 seconds over the chasers.
However, things would change again at the front, when race leader Aleotti and the Bahrain Victorious due to Bilboa and Matej Mohorič got across to the Healy group.
But the Irish champion put in another attack as the race dipped inside the 3km to go marker and this time the elastic snapped; Healy powering in solo to win. There was then a regrouping behind, with Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) winning the sprint for 2nd place from a large chasing group.
