Every cyclist – with perhaps the exception of the 2024 version of Tadej Pogačar – has a weakness, a deficiency in their armour, a shortcoming that holds them back. Most try to rectify it, and the biggest teams throw big money at the biggest stars to overcome their limitations, but Ben Healy has a different approach. He knows that if sprinting was a key characteristic on cycling Top Trump cards, his score out of 100 would probably be in the single digits.
“It’s not like I’m missing out by fine margins – If I go to a sprint with someone, I’ve lost,” the EF Education-EasyPost rider candidly tells Rouleur. “I don’t want to think like that all the time, but when you look at it, it’s the reality of things.” Rather than lament his lack of fast-twitch fibres, or fundamentally change his training in order to counteract his sluggish short burst of power, Healy uses his lack of sprinting speed as the starting block for what makes him one of the peloton’s most exciting and adventurous attackers.
“The thing I am missing is the sprint at the end, and in so many bike races now it’s so hard to drop the other guys, so that kick to the end is something that will cost me a lot in my career,” he continues. “It’s a case of: do I work on that? And I’m so far off my sprint at the moment, that realistically am I still going to be contesting sprints [if he does sprint training]? It’s a give or take situation and a big gamble to really go for my sprint. Right now, I’m not too interested in it. I’ll always do little things to improve, but it’s never going to be a major focus of mine.”
This perspective liberates Healy to focus on what he’s truly good at: sustaining long-range attacks. “It never makes me indecisive: I never question what I need to do to win, so in a lot of races it’s a bonus.” In other words, he’s got clarity; he knows his flaws, and he knows his forte, and he’ll focus on bettering his strengths.
Already a winner of eight pro races after just three years in the WorldTour, including a 50km solo victory at the 2023 Giro d’Italia, 24-year-old Healy is a glass half full kinda guy. “Honestly I don’t know, and it’s something I speak about a lot with my coach [Jacob Tipper],” he says when asked if he knows his ceiling. “My rate of progression since turning pro has been crazy to be honest, and it doesn’t feel like I’m slowing down.
“There’s not so much training for it [his trademark long-distance attacks] – it’s just what I’m good at, that long sub-threshold effort for a long time. My numbers don’t get worse over a long race, they just stay the same. I consider it a lot [reigning it in], but I enjoy racing like that so I don’t really want to change.”
A proficient time triallist as well – he was Irish champion in the discipline in 2022 – it’s natural to ask if Healy will one day change his approach to racing, and instead of being an impatient jack-in-the-box, eager to roll the dice from afar, moderate his enthusiasm and focus on riding more conservatively in a general classification quest. “After the Tour de France this year and the level I got to, I think I showed I can definitely focus on GC and go for it if I want to,” he answers, a nod to him being 13th on GC after stage 16, although he did eventually drop to 27th overall after getting sick during the second rest day. “I think right now it’s a bit early – I still enjoy racing the Ardennes Classics and stage hunting – but in the future for sure maybe I will. But right now I’m happy with what I’ve been doing the last few years.”
The Tour was just his second three-week race, and in typical fashion, he featured in five different breakaways. He came closest to victory on stage nine’s gravel stage, finishing fifth out of sixth in the sprint to the line, highlighting those sprinting flaws. He’s not yet sure if he’ll be back for another lap around France in 2025, but the chances are, given his increasing importance to his team, that he will be.
“You look at the guys who won from breaks, and they were guys who’ve been on the podium of Grand Tours,” he says, reflecting on the 2024 race. “They’re pretty tough wins to get.” In his pursuit of success, he won’t worry about his weaknesses, but focus on strengthening his strengths. “I’m not going out and doing sprints every day because it’s not my thing. But working on my strengths and trying to get better at those is my thing.”
