The triumph of courage
Ben Healy takes a fantastic victory on a frenetic day that saw the breakaway take 100 kilometres to form. Van der Poel is back in the leader's jersey
After working for many years in a school, I became used to uniformity. It often happens when adolescence hits: almost everyone dresses and styles their hair the same way… in order to look different. It’s a paradox, but the social pressure of the group outweighs everything else. Then some people change, it fades, you stop looking in the mirror and, with a bit of luck, you’re sprinkled with the gift of personality. It doesn’t happen to everyone. But not everyone can be Ben Healy.
I’ve titled stage six of this Tour The triumph of courage because it’s the quality that best defines Ben Healy — although I’m afraid his long hair, beard, appearance and style often lead to him being underestimated.
Healy is brave, he’s unafraid of long-range attacks, and in the past, that’s cost him wins… but it’s also brought him top-level victories and podiums. Healy is a fantastic rider, with far more engine than appearances suggest… or than the British Cycling Olympic Development Academy seemed to think when they chose to exclude him from their programme all those years ago.
I can’t think of many people who won’t be pleased with Healy’s win today.
The stage has been hectic and gave us one of the best days of racing in a while — the best so far in the 2025 Tour. The first hour was covered at 49kph, with a flurry of big names trying to make the break: Vauquelin, Van Aert, Enric Mas… and Victor Campenaerts, several times. I highlight him because, despite not being relevant to the GC, his persistence showed Visma’s intent to have a rider up the road — though at that point, we still didn’t know whether they were chasing the stage or planting a bridge for potential moves by Vingegaard and Jorgenson.
That same Jorgenson who went all in with 143km to go — only for Pogačar to shut it down himself.
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