Ben Healy is at Tour de France 2024 looking for a stage win, by the 23-year-old's performance in today's TT shows his general classification credentials for the years ahead. In the biggest race in the world, with the best riders in their peak condition, Healy powered to 9th place today.
And though the EF Education-EasyPost man is a pure racer who competes to win, that result is a special one in his career.
Healy - the nailed on first name on the Irish team sheet for the Olympics - has shown repeatedly he is world class against the watch. But today's performance was huge, coming as it does in the sport's biggest race.
It also shows he is in mint condition at this Tour, which will only raise hopes of a stage win by the time the race rolls into Nice in just over two weeks time. Today he lost 59 seconds, over 25.3km, to stage winner and world champion, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step).
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But Healy was only beaten by the specialists and the biggest general classification riders in the world.
The only name ahead of him that would perhaps not be automatically placed in the sport's top tier was that of Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels). However, the young Frenchman's star is on the rise and he has already taken a great stage win on this Tour.
Healy aside, Sam Bennett (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) - also looking for a stage win in this race - was down the field today, as expected in a TT. He finished in 170th, at 5:30.
For Evenepoel, it was a red letter day; one of the phenoms getting his first Tour win. He did it in real style, putting 12 seconds Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) in 2nd place and 34 seconds into 3rd place finisher Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe); a performance to remind everyone he is still in the fight.
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Pogacar loses out to the World champion ?
Despite a valiant effort from the leader of the Tour de France, it was the world champion that powered to victory #letourdefrance #tdf2024 #cycling pic.twitter.com/ppodSuRYEm— Eurosport (@eurosport) July 5, 2024
The defending champion, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), shipped 37 seconds to Evenepoel today, as he finished 4th.
However, though he also lost 25 seconds to the race leader Pogačar - his main rival for the 2024 crown - and trails him by 1:15 after a week of racing, there is no crisis yet.
Pogačar was always expected to excel in the opening week and gain on Vingegaard, who is trying to ride himself into top form after his major crash back in April.
The big question remains whether Vingegaard will have more than Pogačar in the third week of the race, as has been the case for the last three editions. Though Pogačar has been rampant this season, he already has a Grand Tour in his legs, not to mention contracting Covid-19 just before the race.
Hopefully the time gap between the big two won't extend too much more in the coming days in order that the race for the final yellow jersey is still alive for the last week of the race.
