‘It was pretty stressful' – Ben Healy stays in yellow at Tour de France as Tadej Pogacar crashes near finish of stage 11

Irish Independent

5 days ago

While Abrahamsen was the first rider to attack today, there were no shortage of moves off the front after him and his breakaway companions on a day where two distinct groups finally pulled clear and spent the last 50km of the stage chasing each other as Healy's EF Education Easypost team took charge of the peloton behind.
Race leader Healy was in slight trouble early on when the peloton split into two groups on the Cote de Castelnau-d'Estefronds with some 130km of racing still remaining. As the attacks continued to launch off the front, Healy's pink clad teammates hit the front of the second portion and closed a 20-second gap to bring him back to safety.
'I think I took a few years off my life after today,' said Healy after another hectic day in the saddle. 'It was pretty stressful. The team just did a super effort to keep me up there, even when we missed the split early on. From then on, we were on the ball the whole day.'
With 65km to go, Healy followed a move by pre-race favourite Jonas Vingegaard and went clear of the peloton but defending champion Tadej Pogacar was quick to react and nullify the situation.
'You've got to take what you can get and the opportunity presented itself,' said the 24-year-old race leader. 'I went on a little dig with Jonas and you never know what's going to come with these things.'
Having made a select group alongside Healy, Vingegaard, and most of the other GC contenders at the front of the peloton, Pogacar then hit the deck with 4km to go and stood to lose time to his main rivals before a truce was called up front, allowing the Slovenian back into the fold. This group finished just over three minutes behind the ten escapees today but with none of them challenging in the overall standings, Healy held onto his yellow jersey of race leader.
'I was to the right of him but, honestly, I didn't really see what happened,' Healy said of Pogacar's fall. 'I just hope he's okay. There were a few little attacks in the finale there, but I was able to stay with a group and I'm really happy that I've managed to hang onto yellow for another day.'
The race leader, who was decked out in a new yellow team bike, yellow helmet and yellow shorts to match his race leader's jersey, had his family at the start today and was greeted by his girlfriend and his dog at the finish.
'It's not often you get to wear the yellow jersey so I'm just embracing it all,' Healy said. 'I'm really trying to soak it up. It's an incredible dream come true. The family's all flown out, just to see me in yellow, which is so special. It's just been a crazy, crazy couple of days.
"I think it's just about setting it in. My social media is blowing up, there are fans in the car park. I couldn't even get a coffee this morning. I think I'm really starting to appreciate just the size of all of this. I'm just living the dream."
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Healy remains 29 seconds clear of Pogacar overall, with his nearest rival for the white jersey of best young rider, Remco Evenepoel third at 1'29' and former winner Jonas Vingegaard fourth at 1'46'.
Tomorrow though, presents a big challenge with a very tough 180km stage 12 with the 1.3km long fourth category climb at Cote de Labatmale, the 12km long first category Col d Soulor, and the 3km long second category Col des Bordieres all building up to the first summit finish of this year's Tour atop the 14km long Hors Category ascent of Hautacam.
'I'm quite interested to test myself and see what I can do,' Healy admitted today, 'But I'm realistic in what I can do as well. I've got to be very smart and push every day and try not to make too many mistakes.
"I'm optimistic you know. I think it's going to be a pretty hard fight to hold onto yellow but I'm going to fight right until the end. Hopefully I have some super legs tomorrow. Let's give it a go. Why not?"