"Generational talents" Pogacar and Evenepoel frustrate Healy: "If you want to win races, you have to beat them"

Ben Healy could not follow up on his breakthrough year of 2023. The Irish rider from EF Education-EasyPost occasionally showed himself at the front, but he was often referred to as a place of honor in the big races. With the intense competition, he knows he can do better, but Healy is not sitting back. As a result, he may also be focusing more on the GC.

Healy and attacking are almost synonyms. The Irish champion was combative again this year, but it has downsides. "I think it definitely puts a bit more of a target on your back, especially for my style, that definitely makes it a bit difficult. But I don't think it really changes my approach too much. I still just go out there and race my bike," he told Cyclingnews. Whereas that approach got him a podium finish in the Amstel Gold Race, his spring this year, on the other hand, was not so strong. "My Ardennes obviously wasn't as good as last year, which was a bit disappointing but being the sort of rider I am, I put it all on the line and it either pays off or it doesn't."

Despite the results, the little climber was certainly not dissatisfied with his season: it was a pity that his efforts were not rewarded with a big win. "My performances were, the same, if not better than last year but the results just don't show, which is frustrating. It's not been an awful season, but it's also just lacking that prize, I guess. But that's bike racing."

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Healy, a GC rider? "That's something that we need to think about for the future as well"

Healy made his debut in the Tour de France. There, he was allowed to race in his own distinctive way. A fifth place in the gravel stage to Troyes was the best result, but the chaos of the Tour was what he remembered most. "The break fights were really pretty insane and like no other race. Everyone wants to be in there and everyone was fighting until no one else can fight any longer," says Healy of the breathless stage starts on the Tour. "That's kind of the point that it was going to – when everyone was just that f*cked and they couldn't go anymore."

His level at the Tour gave him courage and hope for the future. He saw that he could keep up with the great violence. "It's kind of got me thinking about GC a bit," he says of it. I think if I raced the first couple of weeks differently, I could have been in a really good GC position going into the third week as well. "I think that's something we need to sit down in the off-season and talk about. I really want to do a repeat of this year [in 2025] and hopefully get some nicer results out of it, take what I've learned from this year and apply that to next year. But yeah, maybe, after the Grand Tour routes come out and I think there's opportunity there, then I think that's something that I definitely to maybe consider as well."

It may also be partly because competing in one-day races is becoming almost impossible: in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Healy was no match for Tadej Pogacar, and at the Paris Olympics, Healy finished tenth, nearly a minute and a half behind Remco Evenepoel. "It's for sure, I'd say frustrating. But you can't be angry as someone for being better, you know? It just is what it is? I mean, they're generational talents, aren't they? That's just the level of cycling right now, and if you want to win races, you've got to beat Pogačar and Evenepoel."

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