As the Tour de France nears the end of the first week, there are still some riders who choose not to look too far ahead at the roadbook, constantly uttering "I'll take it day by day", not to get drawn into the pressure of committing themselves to a specific day.
Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) is not one of them. The winner on stage 6 in Vire Normandie, Healy has long had this day marked with an 'X', July 10, meticulously planning where he could go and how he'll get away, as early as the winter when the Tour route came out.
He's one of the remaining breakaway artists in the peloton, in an era of superstars taking all of the spoils and the favourites racing for each and every day, such is the desire to win as often as possible. On Thursday, Healy showed that the breakaway purists still have a horse in the race at the 2025 French Grand Tour, adding a 42km solo Tour stage win to the near-50km solo Giro stage victory he took in 2023.
There was delight at the EF Education-EasyPost team bus as he celebrated over the finish after a nervous four and a half hours of watching their man try to beat a group that also contained Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
Cheers roared from inside the doors and the horn was honked several times before sports directors came to debrief those gathered to hear just how Healy had managed to do it.
"When he does it, you're on a knife edge for quite a while, because it's quite often so daring and risky what he does," said Tom Southam, sports director for EF Education-EasyPost, who was behind Healy in the team car.
"It keeps you on the edge, and you never want to believe until it's done, even when you get to two minutes. A finish like that, you just don't want something to go wrong."
Southam gave full credit to Healy and his ability to pick out the days that suited him, while also trusting the plan that the sports directors helped draw up. It's all part of the process, but the execution was what must follow all those months of strategy.
"He is the one who marks the book with an 'X' and says this stage. He oversees it, he knows, he's been talking about this stage since the winter," said Southam.
"He's a very studious rider with a lot of his material, approach to the racing, equipment, and knowing what course will suit him and where he will go, knowing his abilities.
"The credit goes to the rider every single time, because it's him who does it, and him who has the idea and believes in it from the very start 100 percent."
Surprise factor
It's a mental game that Healy loves, shown best where he attacked on a fairly unassuming rise 42.6km from the finish. Not only did he have the legs, but he also got the gap thanks to the surprise factor. One moment he was gone, then the next, a pink flash had disappeared.
"The way I look at it, it's really a game of mental honesty, I try to push on the climbs, easy on the descent, and then this really seems to just draw out that elastic and lulls them into this false sense of security I guess," said Healy in his stage winner's press conference. "That's how I'm able to really tear out the gap.
"It didn't necessarily need to be the first move, but it was 100 percent deliberate to try and catch them by surprise. It was a very, very strong group of riders, and I don't believe in just attacking away purely by legs.
"I was just waiting for a moment to catch some speed, and surprise, and that moment came with about 40k to go on a twisty road – it was just perfect, perfect timing."
Healy's careful planning also extends out to his choice of equipment, with his aerodynamic gains maximised, and no stone left unturned when it comes to being as fast as possible for when he decides it's time to launch one of his now-trademark long-range moves.
"I mean, for me, it's maybe I don't push the most power out of everyone, but I just try and be as efficient as possible," Healy admitted.
"Today, I had full TT tires, a waxed chain, TT skinsuit, road-ish helmet, and just maximised everything."
While the stage win coming so early for EF is massive, there were moments where Southam was dreaming of yellow, but his colleagues in the cars behind ensured he didn't get carried away.
"[Yellow] was on my mind, then I spoke to the other DSs and they told me to 'shut the fuck up and win the stage', so first one thing, then comes the other," said the DS, noting then just what it means to take victory so early, after losing their big star Richard Carapaz before the start of the race.
"It's huge, we've been discussing how hard it's going to be for a lot of teams to win stages here with the way the race is playing out, with the way the favourites are racing," said Southam.
"To get a win in is always going to be really difficult, but to do it early is even more important because it gives you the freedom later on to hopefully do more."
Healy will have more stages marked in the roadbook, for sure, and this certainly won't be the last time his pink jersey is off the front. Those also trying to catch a big one from the break will have to ensure he doesn't surprise them again, but it's fair to say no one will have had it as well planned when that time comes.
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