Ben Healy made clear a stage win was his goal before his Grand Tour debut at the Giro d’Italia, and on Saturday the 22-year-old Irish rider delivered on that in sensational fashion, putting in a storming solo attack on the eighth stage, attacking the breakaway with 50 kilometres to go and reaching the finish a cool one minute 49 seconds clear of the next riders.
Healy’s success on the hilly 207 kilometre stage to Fossombrone makes him only the sixth Irishman to triumph at the Giro, adding to earlier successes by Shay Elliott, Martin Earley, Stephen Roche, Sam Bennett and Dan Martin. Doing so at just 22 makes Healy the youngest, and is a real reflection of his potential.
“I had good legs today. I gave it a good go and on the first little dig, I went solo and just pushed on to the finish from there,” he said. “I’m just super proud and happy to be able to do that today.”
The EF Education-EasyPost rider was on the attack all day long, going clear in the opening kilometres with four others. This group swelled to 13 riders and was over four minutes ahead of the peloton heading on to the I Cappuccini climb. Healy struck out there with 50.3 kilometres to go, going from the front on the steep ascent and simply riding the others off his wheel.
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“I was pretty comfortable the first time up. I just wanted to test the legs on the little steep kicker to the top of the climb,” he explained. “No one came with me. I knew I could time-trial to the finish pretty well. I was confident in myself to do that.”
He was soon a minute and a half up over those chasers, and with 10 kilometres remaining he had 1.54 in hand over those and a staggering 6.19 over of the peloton. Healy continued strongly over the second ascent of the I Cappuccini climb and raced in to the finish, saluting the crowd as he crossed the line.
Ireland’s Eddie Dunbar also performed well, finishing in a seven-man group of overall contenders alongside former race leader Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) in 18th place.
They gave up 14 seconds to Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma), Tao Geoghegan Hart and 2018 Tour winner Geraint Thomas (both Ineos Grenadiers), who clipped away on the final climb, but Dunbar will be satisfied with how he is performing thus far.
He remains 11th overall, one minute 55 seconds behind the ongoing race leader Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM).
The Giro d’Italia continues on Sunday with a 35-kilometre individual time-trial to Cesena. Dunbar will likely lose time to the specialists, but should perform strongly once the race returns to the mountains. He said before the race that he expected to be at his strongest in the final week of the event.
As for Healy, he is the Irish national time-trial champion, but will likely dial back the effort in Sunday’s test after a hugely impressive effort on Saturday. Two weeks remain in the race and, given his current form, he’s certain to try for another stage win along the way.
He will have increased confidence after joining those five earlier Irish riders as Giro d’Italia stage winners. “For sure it is a super nice list of names to join,” he said. “Hopefully I can live up to some of their other results in the future as well.”
