Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) is having the race of his life on the Tour de France and today narrowly missed out on taking a second stage win, on the one of the race’s most iconic climbs. He was 2nd to Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) atop Mont Ventoux after doing the lion’s share of the work in the front group as he rode for time, winning the combativity award again for his efforts.
Healy, stage 6 winner and yellow jersey for two days, said he regreted not going harder on the first section of the mountain, to Chalet Reynard. That portion of the ascent is much steeper than the second half of the mountain, above the treeline, where the wind is always a more significant factor.
“I think I played it really nicely in the break and never really touched the wind once until Ventoux,” Healy said. “I hit Ventoux and I wasn’t really sure how my legs were. I took it steady at the bottom and kind of went at a nice pace. It’s an hour-long climb.
“Then, I started to realise I was actually feeling really good today and we definitely could race for the win. I just did a little bit… too little, too late, I think, because this top section is a bit shallower and the headwind was just too hard to break Valentin today.
“I tried to get a jump on (Paret-Peintre) in the finish, because I knew he was more explosive than me on a finish like this. I did my best but didn’t quite get him.
“It’s definitely a climb of two halves; the steep half to Chalet Reynard and then it’s a lot more shallow with the headwind today. I think that played a massive part in this final.
“Unfortunately, I wasn’t quite able to distance the other guys on the last half of this climb. Maybe I should have judged my effort a little bit differently because I, for sure, had super legs today.”
Healy went up the road today in a breakaway of about 30 and when a small group then pressed ahead from it, the Irish rider was not up there. When they raced ont o Ventoux for the big finish, the leaders had 1:30 on the Healy group.
Up front, Enric Mas (Movistar Team) went solo over 10km from the finish, though Healy towed the remains of his group up the first section of trhe climb, catching last man, Mas, with about 4km to go. On the upper slopes, Healy and Paret-Peintre attacked each other, though the Irish rider continued to work the hardest as he was riding for time as well as trying to win the stage.
And though two or three riders were off the back of Healy and Paret-Peintre, and then getting back to them as the Irish-French duo surged and stalled, it came down to a two-up sprint between them. Healy went early, but Paret-Peintre was just that little bit more explosive on the final ramp to the line and took an emtional win. It France’s first stage victory on this Tour.
Healy was 2nd on the same time and has moved up one place to 9th overall, at the expense of Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers). Behind Healy today, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) attacked race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) repeatedly, with the yellow jersey biting back a couple of times.
They dropped everyone else in the select group and got to within 43 seconds of Healy and Paret-Peintre by the finish line, having been six minutes down as the leaders hit the foot of the mountain. Healy said he had gone up the road today looking for another stage win, but also trying to make time gains in the general classification battle.
“I think I’m in a position where I can play for GC and the stage win, with such big time gaps on GC,” he said. “I just wanted to follow the moves and not really be attacking and if a big group… went, I was always ready for that. And then I could play the card for both.”
The race continues tomorrow with 160km from Bollène to Valence. Though the profile is much flatter- with 1,600m of elevation gain – it could still be a route for a breakaway.
