Ben Healy Ready to Put It All on the Line in Worlds Road Race

Tadej Pogačar’s absence is one of the key considerations of this year’s world championships, with the near-inevitability of a long-range attack and a dominant ride to the finish evaporating when the Slovenian crashed on stage 8 of the Vuelta a España.

Suddenly one clear favorite became many: Remco Evenepoel (Belgium), last year’s runner-up is one. Pogačar’s UAE Emirates-XRG Isaac del Toro (Mexico) is another, and so too rising star Paul Seixas (France).

Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands) and Wout van Aert (Belgium) can’t be discounted, even if the circuit might prove a little too tough for them.

And then there are others, riders who on their day can challenge for a medal and, maybe, just maybe, if tactics and form and circumstance combine in exactly the right way, can succeed Pogačar as world champion.

Ben Healy is one of those, notwithstanding what has been a frustrating season.

Not convinced? Think back to last year, when he took bronze on the grueling Kigali course. Remember too his 2025 Tour de France stage win, where he got the better of a number of strong riders in the day’s breakaway, Van der Poel included.

He’s worked hard, he’s feeling good, and he thinks Pogačar’s absence could shape Sunday’s contest in his favor.

“I think it really makes it an open race,” he told Velo this week. “When Tadej’s there on a course like this, it’s almost inevitable that he’s going to win if he’s in good shape.

“So the fact that he’s not there is pretty exciting for a lot of people. I think it’s going to make a very open, chaotic race, which is exactly what I like.”

‘The first really uninterrupted buildup’

Healy is now 26 and has become known for his long range attacks. EF Education-Easypost team manager Jonathan Vaughters termed him mini-De Gendt early in his career for that reason, referring to notorious breakaway rider Thomas de Gendt.

“I’m super good at a more longer duration effort,” Healy said, when asked by Velo to describe his strengths. “Because I’m not quite as explosive or can’t do a super high power like some other guys for two, three minutes. So if I can make that effort as long as possible by opening up the race by attacking early, I believe that’s the best way that I can win these big races.”

Followers of the sport will be well familiar with Healy’s style. He can hide away in a bunch, something made easier by his compact, aero shape, but then boom. He’s hammering on the front, head tilted a little to one side, going and going and going again.

He used to attack too much, burn all his matches. But once he learned to hold back a little, then hit his rivals with one perfectly-timed move, things started to fall into place.

That’s how he won his Tour stage in 2025, after all.

It’s also how he proved to be a big threat in the recent Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal.

He went clear in a strong breakaway with 52km to go and then struck out solo with 25km left. Del Toro and Seixas chased him but the gap persisted for quite some time.

Seixas eventually bridged, as did several others. Healy went on to finish eighth but was the most aggressive rider in the race and showed very promising form.

That is, his coach Jakob Tipper says, the result of a very concentrated approach.

“To be honest, it has just been the first time really we had a good uninterrupted buildup the whole year,” Tipper told Velo Friday.

“This year we didn’t have the smoothest run into the early season races. We had a couple of issues on training camps. We saw that Ben’s power numbers were good but not everything was perfect. Going into Tirreno [Tirreno-Adriatico] and Strade [Bianche], there were good signs but not everything was 100 percent where it needed to be.

“And obviously in this day and age, if you are not one of the super freaks, Pogačar, [Paul] Seixas etcetera, then you get found out if you are not 100 percent on it.”

‘It definitely stokes the fire a bit’

Healy trained well early on in the approach to Itzulia Basque Country but then crashed on stage one and fractured his sacrum. He missed the Ardennes Classics as a result.

He returned to racing at the Tour Auvergne-Rhóne-Alpes, previously known as the Critérium du Dauphiné, and regarded as a key pre-Tour de France event.

That didn’t go to plan, with fever causing him to withdraw.

“Ben got sick in the Dauphiné and that illness seemed to affect basically everyone who got it,” Tipper said.

“It was the same thing that Wout [Van Aert] got, hence why he didn’t go to the Tour. The same thing that Kevin Vauquelin got and obviously he was pretty below average at the Tour.

“We basically found, for all the bit of preparation and work on weaknesses we did towards the Tour, ultimately for whatever reason he wasn’t as fit as he needed to be. You just can’t not be at full fitness any more. So the Tour was a little bit frustrating.”

Healy rode into form and went on the attack on seven of the final nine stages. Things still didn’t quite click and the stage win he was chasing didn’t materialize.

“I think ultimately what I missed is just that top end race-ready fitness,” he said. “By the end of the Tour I was able to go on those bigger attacks because I had a couple of weeks of racing in the legs. Really, that’s what I was missing from the start.”

He’s used that frustration as an incentive to work even harder and to try to turn his season around in the final few weeks of competition.

“It definitely stokes the fire a little bit,” he said. “I just really want to get in a really good last part of the season, and worlds is a really big part of that.

“So 100% it’s been full work, no compromise. Hopefully I can show that in the races to come.”

The work is done

Tipper sees an encouraging sign from the GP Cycliste de Montréal. He notes that Healy doesn’t usually perform well in his first races back after a long break from competition. The fact that he was so good in Montreal reassures him, and so too the hard work that has been done in the 14 days since then.

“The final touches were just some top end work in Vermont between Montreal and now,” he said. “I think everything is looking pretty positive. Obviously it is worlds, a one day race, it is messy. It is a little bit [the case] that anything can happen, as we know with these style of races.

“But I think physiologically everything is in place as much as we can be to control having a successful result.”

What about Healy? How does he rate his form when compared to that of last year’s bronze-medal performance?

“I think it’s pretty similar, to be honest,” he stated. “It’s quite hard to say, isn’t it, until you get to the race day.

“But for sure, I had super positive races in Quebec and Montreal. I’ve stayed over here in North America between the races. So I should have pretty good legs on Sunday, I hope.”

‘It confirmed it is a super good course’

The race could go any number of ways but Healy is clear on what he is hoping for.

“I definitely still need a hard race, and I think that’s one thing that Tadej being there always almost guarantees it’s going to be a hard race,” he said.

“But I think there’s going to be the other guys in big nations like France and Belgium doing that in the place of Slovenia.

“So, yeah, I’m not too worried that it’s not going to be hard. I think if it is, it’s going to be a perfect race for me, and I’ve just got to play my cards right. You never know what can happen by the end of the day.”

Don’t be surprised to see some sort of cooperation between himself and Van der Poel, who will be nervous about going up against climbers like Evenepoel, Del Toro and Seixas, and who pulled off a staggering 176km breakaway on the final stage of the Skoda Tour de Luxembourg.

Going long may well suit the Dutchman, and going long is exactly what Healy is hoping for too.

One thing that will boost his chances is having competed in the GP Cycliste de Montréal on three occasions, including earlier this month. That has given him a insight that some other riders won’t have.

“I’ve raced that circuit a couple of times now, so we’ve always had a good idea of what to expect,” he said.

“I think it just confirmed once again it is a super good course for me, and it just gives us an idea of how to approach the worlds.”

Riding well recently in Montréal is also important on a different note.

“It just gives me a lot of confidence knowing that if the race is raced right and it goes my way, that I can definitely win on Sunday.”