“I was so proud of going into yellow, but I didn’t win it – maybe one day I’ll win it properly”: Ben Healy admits Tour de France GC breakthrough felt bittersweet

Ben Healy has described his spell in the yellow jersey at the 2025 Tour de France as a mixture of pride and frustration, admitting that the experience did not feel like the complete triumph he has always imagined.

Speaking on The Roadman Podcast, the EF Education-EasyPost rider was disarmingly honest about the way his first taste of the maillot jaune still sits with him. “It’s kind of weird. I’m so proud of going into yellow, but at the same time I didn’t win the jersey, do you know what I mean?” he said.

Later in the conversation, when the discussion turned to the infamous image of Lance Armstrong on a sofa with seven yellow jerseys framed behind him, Healy was clear that he is not yet ready to immortalise his own. "It would be a hard image, wouldn’t it? Sitting on the sofa with the jersey behind me and the bike on the wall,” he admitted. “Maybe one day I’ll win it. You never know.”

For Healy, the Tour leadership was a career-defining step – but also a reminder that his broader GC ambitions are only just beginning.

Healy is adamant that his move into yellow in 2025 was built not on a sudden transformation in physical condition, but on a hard reset after a disappointing 2024 season.

“I went into 2024 with high expectations, and nothing went right,” he recalled. “I didn’t find my level again and I wasn’t racing intelligently. I used to get away with things because people didn’t know who I was. Once they did, I couldn’t race the same way. I had to go back to the drawing board and rethink everything.”

Previously, that chaotic style had often worked in his favour. Healy laughed about the Irish national championships he won with a long-range attack that nobody believed in. “I’m attacking Ryan Mullen and Sam Bennett and these guys,” he said. “I attack him like for the 15th time and then Ryan’s getting fed up with it at 110k to go and he goes, ‘Just let him go. We’ll catch him back he can’t do it solo,’ and then he never saw me again. But that’s only something you get away with once.”

Once the peloton stopped underestimating him, that approach simply collapsed.

A detailed winter debrief with long-time coach proved decisive. “I sat down in the winter with my coach and went through what had gone wrong. I learned so much,” Healy explained. “It’s not that I’ve suddenly found a new level. I’ve improved steadily each year, but the real change was analysing the mistakes I’d made and finding better solutions. I needed to race smarter.”

That shift underpinned the Tour stage that put him into yellow. Rather than launching the obvious attack on a climb, Healy and his sports director chose a far less predictable point. “Once I was in the break there was a conversation with the DS about finding a place where I could go without being expected. We chose a twisty downhill with a slight rise.”

“I drifted to the back on the descent and everyone let me. They thought I wouldn’t attack there. We knew what was coming. I hit the moment perfectly, came with speed, they hesitated and I was gone. Once I had twenty metres, it was about keeping my head down and riding as efficiently as possible.”

From there, Healy relied on his trademark combination of aero positioning, controlled pacing and psychological pressure on the climbs.

Healy repeatedly highlighted the influence of his father on his career, and said his day in yellow felt inseparable from that personal history. “My dad is a massive part of why I ride a bike,” he said. “He’s the one who got me into it, took me to the track, took me to races. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be a cyclist.”

That made his Tour milestone even more meaningful. “I’m proud I can repay him for all the weekends he drove me around the country and abroad to races,” Healy said. “If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be here.”

He ensured his parents were present for the biggest day of his career so far. “It was such a special moment when I went into yellow. I flew my parents out and they were at the start to watch me. It was a really cool moment.”

For now, the yellow jersey remains unframed and the emotion sits somewhere between satisfaction and determination.

But with his tactical reset complete, his place in the peloton elevated and his family firmly embedded in the story, Healy’s outlook on yellow feels more like motivation than regret.

“Maybe one day I’ll win it,” he said. “You never know.”