"I almost choked up there" – Emotional Vaughters reacts to Ben Healy’s yellow jersey dream

Ben Healy lit up Stage 10 of the Tour de France, vaulting into the yellow jersey with a fearless breakaway ride that left EF Education–EasyPost boss Jonathan Vaughters on the verge of tears.

“I would have shed a couple of tears all the same if I was watching at home,” Vaughters admitted at the team bus. “I almost did just now, I almost choked up there, but you didn't notice.”

Though Simon Yates claimed the stage win, Healy’s effort was the story of the day. He powered through the final 15 kilometers, dragging the break with him, chasing time gaps, not rivals,and became the first Irishman in 38 years to wear the maillot jaune.

EF had a choice to make mid-stage: protect energy or go all in. “It was tense in there for a long time,” Vaughters said. “At one point we had to make a definitive call for the stage or if we were going to gamble it all and go all in for the yellow jersey.”

With a stage win already in the bag from Healy on Stage 6, EF decided to roll the dice again. “We said – we’ve won a stage, so let’s try to get the yellow.”

What followed was chaos: rival teams turned the screw, time gaps fluctuated, and nerves frayed. “We were just looking at time gaps, looking at our watches, just any information we could get from anywhere, really nervous,” said Vaughters. “We were pretty damn scared when Visma began accelerating the race.”

Healy had no help in the closing stretch. “Ben had to ride the last 15 kilometres by himself because nobody was helping him,” said Vaughters. “To have that mental fortitude and hold it together and not explode—it’s a truly exceptional effort. Very few riders in the world can actually do that extended effort.”

Harry Sweeney was singled out as the day’s MVP. “He was probably worth two minutes of that gap,” said Vaughters. “Unbelievable effort.”

The team’s pride is rooted not just in the result, but in the riders themselves: “This one is much more meaningful because the guys here now are really people who've come up through our system,” Vaughters said. “These guys—I think of them as my kids, and that obviously makes it much more meaningful when your kids pull off something big like this.”

Healy now leads both the general classification and the young rider standings. The challenge is keeping it.

“Toulouse is complicated in that final,” said DS Charlie Southam. “It’s very messy, a lot of short sharp climbs, dead turns into them.”

“We obviously want to keep the jersey as far and as long as we can,” Southam added. “The gap’s not massive and Pogačar is Pogačar. It puts us in a position where we’ll have to defend a jersey quite deep into the Grand Tour—which is unusual and pretty cool.”