Ben Healy style! Brutal Irishman finishes off sensational 57-kilometer solo at Tour of the Basque Country

On Thursday, the Basque hills were turned into a true battleground. The racing was aggressive from the start, culminating in fireworks on the final climb. João Almeida left his rivals behind and soloed to the stage win, taking the leader’s jersey from Maximilian Schachmann in the process.

Friday’s stage was once again far from easy, although it featured slightly fewer elevation gains than the day before. The first climb came early, leading to a flurry of attacks in the opening kilometers. After 20 kilometers, six riders managed to break clear. It turned into a very strong group with Ben Healy, Pello Bilbao, Julian Alaphilippe, Warren Barguil, Bruno Armirail, and Alex Baudin, four of whom were French. For Armirail, joining the break was a nice birthday gift, as he celebrated his 31st birthday on Friday.

Movistar led the peloton and kept the breakaway on a short leash, never allowing more than a two-and-a-half-minute gap. Meanwhile, Axel Zingle crashed in the bunch and was forced to abandon. The Frenchman from Visma | Lease a Bike became the team’s third rider to exit the race, following earlier withdrawals from Victor Campenaerts and Ben Tulett, leaving only four "Killer Bees" still in the race.

The peloton, where UAE Team Emirates–XRG and Groupama-FDJ were also active at the front, kept the breakaway within reach, holding the gap steady at around two and a half minutes. But the real action kicked off with 57 kilometers to go, when Healy attacked his fellow escapees and went solo off the front.

While UAE tried to take control of the chase, the Irishman from EF Education–EasyPost continued to ride away alone. The four chasers quickly found themselves a minute behind. Four chasers, because birthday boy Armirail couldn’t keep up and had to drop back, leaving his three French compatriots and Bilbao to press on. Healy, meanwhile, looked in top form and continued to gain time on the peloton. With 36 kilometers remaining, his lead was still a solid two and a half minutes.

It was the Irishman against the rest, as the main question in the chase became: what now? UAE didn’t seem interested in chasing for the stage win and kept the pace relatively modest in the bunch. Cofidis, on the other hand, did want the victory, aiming to set things up for Alex Aranburu. But the question was: had Cofidis realized this too late?

With 19 kilometers to go, the last of the breakaway riders were finally caught. Bilbao, racing in his home region, resisted briefly, but the Basque rider was also swallowed up by the peloton. Healy, however, still held a lead of over two minutes, although the pace in the bunch was clearly picking up.

It was Michael Leonard (INEOS Grenadiers) who sparked the action in the peloton. The young Canadian launched an acceleration that significantly thinned out the group. Enric Mas then followed up with a move of his own, prompting all the general classification contenders to appear near the front. Florian Lipowitz also attacked, but none of them managed to create a meaningful gap. Schachmann looked to be in trouble for a moment among the favorites, but managed to hang on.

All this GC action was still happening over two minutes behind Ben Healy, who stubbornly maintained his high tempo. The Irishman was powering toward a magnificent stage win—mirroring his solo victory on Stage 8 of the 2023 Giro d’Italia, where he also finished off a 50-kilometer solo effort. Healy crossed the line in Gernika with a huge lead. Behind him, Laurance had managed to break free to claim second place, ahead of Velasco, who won the sprint for third.