"An absolute slog of a day" - Ben Healy holds onto Tour de France top-10 on Col del la Loz

Ben Healy's first real GC challenge at a Grand Tour is still going strong after stage 18 of the 2025 Tour de France. The Irishman remains 9th overall after a brilliant ride limited his losses, after being dropped relatively early on the Queen Stage.

"It was  just an absolute slog of a day for me. I don't think I had the best legs," admitted the former Maillot Jaune wearer in a post-stage press release on the EF Education-EasyPost website. "It was really just thanks to my teammates that they held me in there today and gave me the easiest ride I possibly could do until the Col de la Loze."

"Then, I just had to hold my effort all the way to the top. Today, I really had to try and switch off the head and set my rhythm and ride my own tempo to the top and just do the best I could," Healy continues. "Tomorrow is going to be hard, but I'm going to fight for it."

Among those teammates who played a key role in keeping Healy's top 10 dream alive, was Alex Baudin. After getting himself in the early breakaway, Baudin dropped back to help Healy towards the finale. "It was a really, really good day. I had good legs today, so I tried to go in the front and enjoy the racing and be an actor in the race," Baudin reflected. "The idea was to get in the break and help Ben after the Col de la Madeline in case the GC guys went super hard there, which was the case."

"Ben struggled a little bit on the Madeline. There was still a big gap between him and the group at the top, so I decided to wait, since I was not in front anymore," Baudin explains. "I stopped on a turn in the downhill and took a picture with a fan on the road. It was pretty funny. But then they came pretty fast and we did the downhill full gas and then we did our best to launch Ben into the final climb. The goal was to reduce the gap on the yellow jersey group. Harry did a TT in the valley, which was really impressive. I had to go full gas on the wheel. Then, I did what I could on the climb."

Ultimately though, Baudin was impressed by the mental strength shown by Healy in the long chase of his GC rivals. "Ben did really well to manage his effort on the day. Even though he lost time on the Madeleine, he kept his pace on the last climb and caught a lot of guys. I think, in the end, it was a good day for the team," Baudin concludes. "On a day like this, you need to be strong mentally. The public really, really help. The whole day, I saw people I knew on the side of the road. I saw a lot of friends and family and that really pushed me. I went all in for Ben. It’s so great to work for a leader like him. You know, he is going to do a great result in the end."