Ben Healy finishes second in stage 16 of the Tour de France
produced another magnificent ride in the
Tour de France
, this time finishing second on Stage 16 with its iconic summit finish on Mont Ventoux.
It came down to a frantic battle between four riders inside the last 1km, the 24-year-old Healy the first to move within sight of the finish, only to be passed by French rider Valentin Paret-Peintre metres from the line. Both riders were given the same time.
It was a nonetheless stunning ride for Healy, of team EF Education–EasyPost, who last week wore the leader's yellow jersey for two days.
After catching the last breakaway rider Eric Mas of Movistar with 3.8km to go, Healy kept pressing from the front, along with Paret-Peintre of Soudal Quick-Step.
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Paret-Peintre took off with 2.7km to go, but Healy refused to concede. The duo were then rejoined by Mas and Santiago Buitrago of Bahrain-Victorious with 1.6km to go, leaving four riders on contention for the famous stage win.
With 1km to go, Paret-Peintre attacked again, but again Healy refused to concede.
Just down the road, Tadej Pogačar and his Danish rival Jonas Vingegaard were leading the chase. Pogačar made his move inside the last 2km, finishing sixth, 43 seconds down on the winner.
Stage 16 took in the 172km from Montpellier to Mont Ventoux, also known as the Giant of Provence, the last 20km descent up the iconic mountain the only climb of the day. After making its Tour debut in 1951, Ventoux has become of the most famous climbs in all of cycling. Tom Simpson died here in 1967, Eddy Merckx crawled up in 1970, and Chris Froome ran up in 2016.
Approaching from its steepest side, from Bédoin, it finished at the observatory, at just under 2,000m, Healy just missing out on his place in Tour history.
Healy had started Stage 16 in 10th in overall GC, 18:41 down on Pogačar, and moves up to ninth overall 17:26 down.
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