"If I didn't believe in myself I wouldn't be here" - Ben Healy not giving up Maillot Jaune without a fight at 2025 Tour de France

Ben Healy has undoubtedly been one of the star riders over the course of the first 11 stages at the 2025 Tour de France. If the Irishman is to keep hold of the Maillot Jaune on stage 12 though, Healy will likely need to put in the climbing performance of his career against Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard.

Clearly not willing give up the race leader without a fight however, on stage 11, Healy even attempted to get himself up the road and into the breakaway. "Yeah I mean, yesterday, you have to try and take any advantage you can on Tadej," smiled the EF Education-EasyPost star in a pre-stage 12 interview with ITV Sport at the start line of the first day in the Pyrenees. "Today is going to be a very different day for me. I've just got to try and keep calm, try and ride my own tempo. I've just got to get to the finish as fast as possible for me today. If that's within 29 seconds of Tadej, then I'll be a happy man at the end."

"I don't think I can wish for anything. It's just going to be hard from the start," he continues. "There's two mountains and that's just a war of attrition. I've race Hautacam before, and I know it's quite difficult. But yeah, this is the Tour de France. You go up it quite a bit faster than anywhere else."

Still though, Healy sounds reasonably confident. "I have to don't I!" he smiles. "I'm a bike rider and if I didn't believe in myself I wouldn't be here."