Ben Healy on the front, grinding the gear, in a bid to drag the six-man group far enough ahead of the general classification group to give them a shot at the win on stage 14 (Photo: Thomas Maheux)
Ben Healy and his EF Education-EasyPost team were on the offensive during stage 14 yesterday at the Tour de France. Richard Carapaz was at the pointy end of the spear for the team, only to be mowed down by the general classification group in the final.
And while Healy said a few days ago the soaring temperatures had taken the edge off his performance, he had his best legs of the Tour on yesterday's stage. That was very much in evidence in his power numbers, with new records set.
Healy averaged 313 watts for a three-hour effort, which was an all time record for him. That really underlines how hard he raced off the front, yet the general classification men caught him with 21km to go.
He did 399 watts for 20 minutes and 432 watts for 10 minutes. He also did 456 watts for five minutes.
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Those are huge numbers in the service of Carapaz, the man the team was trying to fire into a stage-winning position.
⛰️ Despite the hard work of his team-mates, Richard Carapaz was pipped to the post by Valentin Paret-Peintre, who picked up 10 points on the Grand Ballon.
⛰️ Malgré le gros travail de ses équipiers, Richard Carapaz est devancé par Valentin Paret-Peintre qui prend 10 points au… pic.twitter.com/yn0rliSWPz
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 18, 2026
With a week to go, including the race's journey into the Alps, Carapaz and Healy still have plenty of time to take a stage win. They look like they have the legs, but any breakaway they are in needs to be given enough leeway to make it.
Otherwise, yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) will simply continue to monster his way through the finals and added another couple of stages to his tally of four so far on this race.
How Healy rode so hard
Healy was in the day's breakaway and when it split, with seven riders racing ahead, the Irishman was in that front group. He put in a huge shift for Carapaz, trying to keep him far enough ahead of the general classification group to give him a shot at the stage win.
In the end, it didn't work, with the peloton, then GC group, keeping the front of the race less than two minutes ahead for most of the stage.
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And when the final arrived, it was clear that even Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) has begun to ride to ensure he takes 2nd place overall, which is far from certain at this point.
Richard Carapaz and Tobias Halland Johannessen were the last men standing from the breakaway but were caught with just over 8km to go (Photo: Thomas Maheux)
Vingegaard hit the front on the final climb in a bid to drop riders from the GC group that may challenge him for the runner-up slot, immediately seeing Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) spat out.
In the process, the last of the breakaway men - Carapaz and Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) were caught, with about 8.5km to go.
And after Vingegaard had pulled on the front, and done some damage, Pogačar attacked with 8km to go to win.
But Healy had already put in a great showing on the 155km stage from Mulhouse to Le Markstein, with four climbs and 4,000m of elevation gain.
Tadej Pogačar attacked with 8km to go on stage 14 to extend his overall lead and win his fourth stage of Tour de France 2026 (Photo: Charly López)
Not long after the start - with 138km to race - Carapaz attacked, followed by Healy. And very quickly a group of 30 was off the front. Healy also had team mates Alex Baudin and Georg Steinhauser in the group.
However, after his breakaway efforts yesterday saw him shoot up the general classification to 4th, the presence of Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) in the escape meant the gap the breakaway was allowed to pull out was closely controlled.
Only about 10km after the breakaway formed, Healy was attacking again off the front, trying to get a smaller group clear, though he was closed down.
On the summit of the Grand Ballon, the first climb of the day, crested at 36.6 km, Healy led out Carapaz, who was beaten to the summit by Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step).
That duo pushed on down the descent, going clear. They were soon joined in Healy, Tobias and Anders Halland Johannessen (both Uno-X Mobility) and Einer Rubio (Movistar).
From that point, with 90km to go, Healy stepped up and did a huge share of the work in the breakaway, up and over the Col du Page and Ballon d'Alsace.
After the day up the road, and almost 60km in the six-man group with Carapaz, Healy was dropped on an uncategorised climb with 33km to go. He was caught by the peloton with 21km to go.
Healy eventually finished 39th, at 21:13, but having ridden himself into the ground to set up Carapaz. However, his strong bid to win was wiped out by the fact the GC contenders simply never let the breakaway go and raced hard in the final for the stage win.
