Ben Healy has continued his very strong start to his tenure at World Tour level with a solo breakaway at the end of Milano-Torino in Italy today. And while the EF Education-EasyPost rider was eventually caught, he put up a very good fight and forced Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl to dig deep to get him back.
While the Belgian team was chasing the Irish rider inside the final 10km, Healy was maintaining his gap and even eking out a few extra seconds here and there. It wasn’t until French champion Rémi Cavagna hit the front and began pulling much harder that the breakaway Irishman was reeled in.
Healy (21) – who put up a fantastic breakaway ride at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad last month – broke free from the main field today with just over 16km to go, about 5km after the breakaway had been caught. He initially got clear with team mate Alberto Bettiol.
However, after about 1km off the front Bettiol peeled off and left Healy to his own devices; the Irishman putting his head down and going for broke. While his gap was around 10 to 12 seconds for most of his breakaway, he managed to get his advantage up to 18 seconds at one point despite the chase behind.
In total he spent 12km off the front, all but 1km of that on his own, and was only recaptured with just over 4km to the finish. The strength of his efforts today show he is clearly at a level where he could win a race this year and is confirming his status as one of Irish cycling’s most exciting prospects at precent.
When Healy was caught the sprinters’ teams continued massing on the front, ensuring the race – on a flatter course this year – ended in a gallop. Arkéa Samsic made a decent effort to lead out Nacer Bouhanni but the French team hit the front far too early and with too few men.
Once they had fallen by the wayside Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl took over with Michael Mørkøv giving another perfect lead out to Mark Cavendish. And though Bouhanni and Alexander Kristoff (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) did their best in the gallop, Cavendish won it will.
Healy eventually finished in 121st at 2:17; the impressive neo pro trailing off the back of the peloton and riding his way to the finish after being caught.
The only other Irish rider in the race, Eddie Dunbar (Ineos Grenadiers), finished in 60th at 15 seconds. He was just on the wrong side of a split in the bunch and was riding a race today not suited to him given the lack of climbs.
