Irish rider Ben Healy on Thursday won a hilly sixth stage of the Tour de France after a long solo breakaway, while Mathieu van der Poel took back the yellow jersey from defending champion Tadej Pogacar by one second.
Healy, 24, had won a stage on the Giro d’Italia before, but this was his first victory at cycling’s showcase race.
“A stage win in the Tour is just unbelievable, it’s what I’ve worked for,” he said. “I grew up watching the Tour and wishing one day I could just be there. Participating in the Tour is already an achievement and to win a stage is just so so amazing.”
Photo: AFP
Quinn Simmons of the US was 2 minutes, 44 seconds behind Healy in second place and Australian Michael Storer was 2:51 back in third spot.
Van der Poel finished eighth, while Pogacar was a little further back in ninth.
Stage six took the riders over 201.5km from Bayeux to Vire Normandie, featuring six minor climbs before a sharp uphill finish with a 10 percent gradient.
Slovenian star Pogacar accelerated at the end of the stage, but could not quite do enough to stop the yellow jersey going to 30-year-old Dutchman Van der Poel, who is not considered a general classification contender.
“I would have loved to have a bit more than one second, but I’m happy to have it again,” said Van der Poel, who struggled with the heat. “I’ll try my best to recover as good as possible and then we’ll see tomorrow, but first I’m going to enjoy the yellow jersey. I will probably only have it for one day.”
Two-time Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard finished 10th, just behind Pogacar, and is fifth overall.
The route favored all-rounders and an experienced-looking eight-rider breakaway, including stage two winner Van der Poel and Giro d’Italia champion Simon Yates, pulled away from the yellow jersey group around three-time Tour winner Pogacar.
Riding through rolling countryside they opened up a four-minute lead with 40km to go, which is when Healy decided to go for the stage win and pulled away from his rivals, who could not follow.
“Today’s stage really suited me, I had circled this day from the start,” Healy said. “I knew I needed to get away from the group, I think I timed it well and I caught them by surprise a little bit. Then I knew what I had to do — just put my head down.”
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