Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) held his general classification position at the Tour de France on Friday, despite saying he decided to ride the mountain TT with a view to taking a rest and losing time.
And while his team boss, Jonathan Vaughters, had floated the idea of Healy now riding for the general classification, it appears the team has settled on a different course of action; more attacks. And those fireworks may come as early as tomorrow's stage 14 to Superbagnères.
"My TT was pretty nice actually. I got to take it a bit steady. We said yesterday that if I want to look for some more stages rather than a GC, I need to lose a bit of time and rest on the TT. This was the perfect way to do it," Healy explained.
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"The crowds were amazing. It’s pretty incredible to see the number of people that are out the road. It’s a bit of a mission for them to get out here, so it’s cool to see everyone out. A hard day’s rain is coming tomorrow. You know what that means."
On today's Pyrenean TT - 10.9km up the Peyragudes - Healy placed 26th, some 3:38 down on stage winner and race leader, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG). That resulted in the Irishman - winner of stage 6 and leader of the race for two stages - holding 11th overall.
He is now 16:57 off yellow but almost four minutes up on Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) in 12th. That puts Healy in a very useful position. He is far enough off the yellow jersey - and almost nine minutes off the top five - to be allowed the leeway to attack.
Indeed, Healy is down far enough overall to be given leeway - and gain time - on a couple of stages before those interested in riding for the top five would seek to control him by chasing him.
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Depending on your perspective, the Tour was today treated to, or had to endure, another dominant win by Pogačar that further tightens his grip on the Coupe Omnisports for another year with eight stages remaining.
However, though the Slovenian gained more time on everyone - collecting his fourth win on this race and his 21st career Tour stage win - his nearest rival Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) was 2nd today and only lost 37 seconds.
That keeps alive hopes that we might yet get a race, at least on some of the mountain stages to come, however feint those hopes are, based on the evidence thus far. Vingegaard, who lost 2:10 to Pogačar on Hautacam yesterday, remains 2nd overall and is now 4:07 down.
Remco Evenepoel (Soudal QuickStep) is now 3rd, at a whopping 7:24, and was caught for two minutes by Vingegaard in today's TT; the Belgian world and OIympic TT champion clearly way of his comfort zone in an uphill TT.
Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) showed the first signs of form - proof of life, even - today on Tour 2025 with a 3rd place finish, at 1:21. His German team mate, Florian Lipowitz (24), was 4th at 1:56, while young Scot, Oscar Onley (Team Picnic PostNL), continued his exceptional Tour, placing 7th at 2:07.
