"I definitely had the legs to win" - Ben Healy regrets not riding Ventoux more tactically

Ben Healy came extremely close to winning his second stage at the 2025 Tour de France, but one man stood in his way. Boosted by the crazed crowds on the flanks of Mont Ventoux, Valentin Paret-Peintre left everything on the road - just enough to narrowly edge out Healy who had to settle for a bitter second place.

"I knew I was in pretty good shape this Tour, so the plan was to just ride up the Ventoux as hard as possible," Healy told his story after the stage. "We maintained a good pace in the group at the beginning, but it was difficult to coordinate. I said: we'll catch Mas first, and then we can play the game. We ultimately did that all the way to the finish, because at the top, with that headwind, it was harder to gain a gap."

Healy reveals that he had a good idea of how the finish on Ventoux was laid out and tried to play his cards the best way possible by approaching the last sharp turn from first spot. "I knew about the right-hand hairpin in the final meters; I wanted to distance myself from Paret-Peintre before that," the Irishman from EF Education-EasyPost analyzes his final.

Frankly, playing it smart was not enough to hold off his French rival. "I managed it, but those last hundred meters felt so incredibly long. He had the better legs in that final push, so he was able to pass me."

Would he have the opportunity to do things over again, Healy admits he would approach the final climb differently: "In retrospect, I should have pushed a bit harder on the steeper sections; I definitely had the legs for that. But anyway, I didn't [win]."

Healy was at least rewarded for his heroics with a move up to 9th spot overall, jumping over Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers). In addition, the struggling Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) is within the Irishman's reach.