The Irishman comes solo. The Slovenian attacks on the Capuchins, with only Thomas and Geoghegan Hart with him. Evenepoel at 16″. Leknessund keeps the shirt for 8″
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cast iron gazette
Healy wins, Roglic attacks, Geoghegan Hart and Thomas hold, Evenepoel suffers and pays. This is the summary of the 8th stage of the 2023 Giro.
Spring surprise
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12 June 2021: Castelfranco Veneto, last stage of the Giro Under. 26 March 2023: Larciano, Gp Industry and Craftsmanship. Today, 13 May 2023: Fossombrone, 8th stage of the Giro d’Italia. Three successes, or rather three solitary triumphs. The protagonist is always him, Ben Healy, the new name of this cycling spring in which he also achieved second place in the Amstel and Freccia del Brabant, as well as fourth place in Liège. But who is Healy? He is 22 years old and rides for Ef Educational (with the contract expiring at the end of the season).
the choice
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Born on 11 September 2000 in Kingswinford (Staffordshire) near Birmingham, he preferred to race under the Irish flag, “because I wanted to have the chance to race more”, because “my family comes from there, and it’s thanks to my father Brian if I fell in love with cycling. He inspired me, even if he never pushed me to run. But when I tried it I immediately liked it despite everything, effort, sacrifices…”. But perhaps the real reason for choosing Ireland is linked to a disappointment. “Before the age of sixteen I had entered the British development academy for mountain bikes. After a while, however, I was rejected, I was no longer good. And so I also started riding racing bicycles. And that’s when I chose Ireland,” he told the Irish Times.
HIS FUTURE
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As a junior, however, he won the Tour of the Basque Country ahead of Evenepoel. The professional world tasted it in 2019 with Team Wiggins, a team where Tom Pidcock was also there. A growing career, but how far can it go? In hard races it is already a certainty, in grand tours it is to be discovered. However, he seems to have a necessary quality to make the classification, that of getting along well in the time trials so much so that he is the national champion of the specialty and at last year’s European Championships he finished in 6th place. Someone, remembering Liège, argues that he has tactical shortcomings. Well, do you remember young Nibali? How many races did he miss to learn how to become champion? Others argue that in the saddle it is ugly, awkward. After all, if you look at him you see that when he pushes everything moves. That he has his left shoulder higher than his right. That his style is more than revisable. And Froome looking like the anti-cycling he raced won? Was he effective or not?
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