The five minutes between Ben Healy and Tadej Pogačar crossing the finish line of stage 10 at the Tour de France were the longest five minutes of Jonathan Vaughters’ life: “We knew it was going to be really tight, the minute Ben crossed the line we started the stopwatch and we were just sitting there counting down the seconds,” the team manager said at the finish line in Le Mont-Dore, his eyes glassy and voice cracking. 

“We knew, as soon as Pogačar accelerates, that he's going to take 30 seconds out in 800 metres. Even if we got to the last kilometre with enough time, it still wasn't certain.”

For EF Education-EasyPost, all the stress, all the effort and all the anguish was for a chance to feel the magic of the maillot jaune. In an era where Pogačar has now taken enough yellow jerseys to dress an entire army, we need days like stage 10 of the Tour de France to remind us just how special this race really is. It took four riders in the breakaway, a water-tight race strategy and a very strong Irishman to put Healy in the race lead going into the first rest day and for EF, it was every bit worth it. Yellow was their one and only mission.

“At first we were telling Ben, take it easy, let Harry [Sweeny] do the work, let Nielson [Powless] do the work, let Alex [Baudin] do the work. We were just saying ‘Ben, chill out,’ because Ben isn't particularly good at chilling – he wants to go early and often,” Vaughters grinned after the race.

(Photo: A.S.O./Aurélien Vialatte)

“As we got into the last 20 kilometres we told him: ‘nobody is your friend at this point in time, you're just going to have to put your head down and take it all the way to the line,’ and he did flawlessly. It takes an amazing rider to have the resistance that he has. I'll be interested to see this power file tonight. It's probably extraordinary.”

Anyone who has been following this year’s Tour with even the most remote interest will know that Healy is in career-best form at this bike race. His solo victory on stage six to Vire Normandie, when he rode away from his breakaway companions to win by almost three minutes, was proof of this, but his performance on stage 10 is not just impressive in terms of his physical ability: it’s a sign of the 24-year-old’s heart. The stage win earlier in the week – as he admitted after the race – was most precious to him, but riding in yellow is for those who have helped him get here.

“This yellow jersey is more for the team; they really had to work hard for me today to put me in that position. The stage win was the first goal, and the yellow jersey feels like a bonus,” Healy smiled after the race. “I am just super happy to pay my team back for the work today.”

His team manager, Vaughters, also pointed out the importance of Healy’s character as he fought to maintain the time gap between himself and the GC group on the final climb today – it was about more than just legs, but about having a fire from within.

(Photo: Zac Williams/SWpix.com)

“To have the mental fortitude to not worry about five guys sitting on your wheel and just say: ‘okay, I don't care, I'm just going to take this all the way to the line and hold it together and not explode,’ it's a truly exceptional effort and there are very few riders – if any riders in the world – that can actually do that extended of an effort like Ben can,” the American commented.

Healy’s performances in this Tour de France have shown us, once again, how unique he is as a bike rider. As Vaughters admitted, he has an extraordinary talent on his team – someone who can do remarkable things on two wheels, even when racing against cycling’s very top table. Healy will wear yellow when the Tour restarts in Toulouse on Wednesday, and it will mark a seismic moment in the history of EF Education-EasyPost as a team. It will also be the biggest day yet of the Irish rider’s career – but the operative word in that sentence is yet. What will come next for Ben Healy? After what he has pulled off in this race so far, even the man himself believes that the sky’s the limit.

“I know I’d have to make a huge step up [to ride to win the yellow jersey in the future], with the level of Tadej and Jonas [Vingegaard],” he stated. “Right now, that is ambitious – but I think one day I might be able to.”