he Irishman from

England( he hails from the Midlands, close to Birmingham) has further cemented his reputation as the peloton’ s mischievous imp, the rider who takes a wicked delight in teasing the peloton with audacious moves that aren’ t quite as reckless as they might seem. By clinching the bronze medal at the World Championships in Rwanda last year, this irrepressible racer made it very clear that he now has to be taken very seriously.

“ I wouldn’ t put him on the same level as phenomena like Pogačar or Van der Poel, but he can turn a race upside down,” explains his sports director Charly Wegelius, who points out that, since Healy’ s arrival at EF Education-Easypost in 2022, his team has given him free rein so that he can test himself in every kind of terrain.“ He constantly needs to find something new because, these days, he can’ t rely on the element of surprise any longer. His rivals know who he is.”

So who is he exactly? Wegelius believes Healy has two major cards up his sleeve:“ Firstly, from a physical perspective, he has an exceptional aerodynamic profile. On a bike, he’ s like a little ball. And his second asset is his extraordinary resistance to fatigue.”

“ But there’ s something even more important about him, and that’ s the pleasure he gets from racing,” adds Jacob Tipper, the ex-pro who has been coaching him since he was

15.“ When he first started out, he was dubbed the‘ mini-De Gendt’ in tribute to Belgian breakaway specialist Thomas De Gendt, but that’ s a bit of an oversimplification. In reality, Ben isn’ t like anyone else,” says Tipper, who took Healy under his wing at his father’ s request when he left British Cycling’ s Olympic programme, which was“ too focused on track cycling”.

Looking back over the past decade, Tipper reflects on how far they’ ve come:“ At first I didn’ t realise that I was dealing with an exceptional

rider. Then one day, when he was 15, we went out with some strong guys, some of them ex-pros, and I told him to attack on the first climb just to see how he did, thinking that we’ d easily catch him on the descent. We never saw him again!”

Since then, Tipper has made a point of giving his thoroughbred racer“ some breathing space” in order to prevent him from burning out too quickly. Yet, as a result of his protégé’ s constant improvement – between his first stage win at the Tour de l’ Avenir in

2019 and the 2025 World Championships – that margin for progression has narrowed:“ We’ re now at the fine-tuning stage.”

Naturally, given his ninth place finish at the 2025 Tour, everyone’ s wondering whether Healy can become a GC contender.“ He’ s exceeded my expectations so much that nothing is impossible, but that’ s not really our ambition at the moment,” Tipper explains.“ Ben isn’ t a sprinter, nor is he a pure climber, so he’ s had to find his own unique way of winning. That’ s what gives him pleasure. So we’ re working to ensure that he becomes the best possible version of himself.” And, as the man who knows him best underlines, this hasn’ t gone too badly for Healy so far. ●

PHOTOGRAPH: ÉTIENNE GARNIER / L’ ÉQUIPE

18 | TOUR DE FRANCE 2026