“We had Roche and Kelly, now we have Ben Healy” – EF Education-EasyPost star joins legendary group at the Tour de France

There are ways to take the yellow jersey at the Tour de France. And then there’s what Ben Healy did on Stage 10.

“He was just like a motorbike on his own,” said Adam Blythe on, summing up what the cycling world witnessed as Healy rode clear of expectation and into history. “Towing these guys… until 3ks to go. The way that he won it just, you got to take your hat off to him. That man is like an Irish motorbike.”

Healy didn’t just take yellow. He controlled the breakaway in a way that seasoned GC riders might not have managed. “Zero help in that last, what, 40 km,” Blythe said. And still, he finished third on the stage, less than half a minute down on the winner, Simon Yates.

The achievement is monumental. Orla Chennaoui pointed out, “He is the fourth Irishman in history to wear the yellow jersey. We had Shay Elliott. We had our very own Sean Kelly. We had Stephen Roche. And now we have Ben Healy. It’s incredible.”

And it’s not just the jersey, it’s how it was won. “Go back to stage six, which he won—I think gave him the freedom today to make a really clear decision,” Ewen said. EF Education–EasyPost had four riders in the break. They made a plan, and Healy executed it. “They said, ‘Okay, this is what we’re going to do because we know we got Ben. We can get yellow, maybe win the stage as well.’”

At some point, Healy made a tactical pivot. “He said, ‘That’s it. I’m going for yellow. Got the gap. I’m going to make sure I maintain it.’ And he did it. And he was just phenomenal,” Ewen said. “The other riders in that breakaway… they need to give him a pat on the back because without him there, completely different situation.”

It wasn’t just Healy, either. His teammates emptied themselves for him, and made the yellow dream possible. “They all fully sold out for him. And it’s cool to see. That was really a team effort.”

Then there’s the UAE question. Did Pogacar’s team willingly let the jersey go?

“I don’t care what anyone says on this, they beat UAE today,” Blythe declared. “There’s no way UAE wanted that yellow jersey to go off Tadej’s shoulders. Not one bit of me believes that.”

Ewen wasn’t so sure: “I’m saying they’re happy for it to go, going into the rest day. Long transfer tonight. No podium, get on the bus, get gone.”

In the end, as the panel agreed, maybe both were right. UAE may have started the day trying to win, but once they saw their resources dwindling, “they thought, well actually maybe it’s not so bad.”

Beyond tactics, this was a day that could shape cycling’s future in Ireland. “Seeing this man in the yellow jersey, I remember as a kid, Stephen Roche in yellow,” said Orla Chennaoui. “I didn’t know what it meant… I just knew there was an Irishman beating the world’s best somewhere in France.”

That kind of visibility matters. “That can start today,” they added. “It does start today and I think Ben is a very good example of it as well. He’s not a Tadej Pogačar… He’s Ben Healy. Separate to all of that.”

That’s exactly what makes Healy’s story so compelling. He’s not the prototype, and that’s the point according to Blythe. “It’s an example of there’s so many different ways to be successful at bike riding… Ben is a very good example of that because there’s not many of him around.”

It may not last forever, especially given Pogacar and Vingegaard are looming, but what Healy did was more than just a performance. It was a statement. A 29-second lead, and a nation watching.