Ben Healy reveals his love for breakaways and hopes to succeed in ardennes classics in the future: "I really enjoy being on an attack"

Anyone who delves into the past year of road cycling and examines the various races again will come to the conclusion that several riders can be labeled as 'seasonal revelations'. It can then be said with some certainty that Ben Healy also belongs to that category. That was reason enough for In de Leiderstrui to visit the long-haired Irishman for a one-on-one interview!

Healy, the British-born Irishman who, thanks to his seventies haircut and accompanying full beard, looks as if he is already in his mid-thirties, but is still only 23 years old, showed great things every now and then in 2022, but it was this calendar year that is known as his real breakthrough year.

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"It was a really great season, with almost only peak moments. Really crazy," he cheerfully begins his evaluation of the season. "I never dared to dream of something like that. It really went much better than I ever imagined. Hard work pays off, I guess!" Logically, his stage victory in the Giro is the result he is most proud of, although he also hints that his places of honor in the Ardennes classics do him very well. "I surprised myself a bit, but it was really great. I had been dreaming of doing well in classics for years, so that was a particularly good sign."

Healy looks like a rider who can handle all kinds of terrain. What type of rider does he actually want to become? "I'm still young, so I'm obviously still discovering what kind of rider I want to become. I'm pretty good at a lot of things, but there are also a lot of parts that I know are not my thing. To be honest, I really enjoy being on an attack," said the adventurer in Healy. "Long stages where you have to eat a lot and it really becomes a kind of survival journey, are my favorite stages. If there is still something of a punchy finale, it is absolutely perfect."

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Final startlist Giro dell'Emilia with Pogacar, Roglic, Yates twins, Ayuso, Mas, Jorgenson, Carapaz, Urán and Carlos Rodríguez