EF Education-EasyPost return to Tour de France stage hunting after Ben Healy's stint in yellow

Former race leaders EF Education-EasyPost will return to stage hunting at the Tour de France, after a short but valiant stint in the yellow jersey for their Irish star Ben Healy.

After losing time on the climbs towards the Hautacam, stage 13 was Healy's first day back in regular team kit after a noble stint in yellow, taking the race lead on stage 10 and wearing the jersey for two days.

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On the rest day, EF team owner Jonathan Vaughters was bullish about Healy's chances of finishing in the top 10 in Paris, and that's certainly still possible – he is currently in 11th – but it seems like the team will mainly focus on winning stages, their original plan here after Richard Carapaz had to skip the race.

"Our team is full back to stage hunting," Neilson Powless explained after the stage 13 time trial.

"We really embraced and loved the time we had in yellow, and it's something that's super rare in cycling, to have the yellow jersey in the team. So we took that with privilege, but we're back to stage hunting again."

Despite Healy losing yellow – perhaps expectedly to some – on the first day in the Pyrenees on stage 12, there is still a feeling that the stage 6 winner is in very good shape at this race.

Harry Sweeny, who rode most of the final of stage 12 with Healy on his wheel, offering him words of support and a few cold water bottles over the head, certainly thinks his teammate still has a higher level at his disposal.

"Yesterday was a hard day for Ben," Sweeny said after the time trial. "I think his level is higher than what he could do yesterday in the heat. That's not an excuse, but it's just he struggles a lot in the heat."

Naturally, as the team's most successful rider in the race so far, a lot of eyes will be on Healy in the team's return to stage hunting, but plenty of other riders in the team are capable of victory, too.

Powless is riding into shape in this race, Sweeny took 15th in the uphill time trial, and Kasper Asgreen and Michael Valgren are breakaway stalwarts who know what it takes to win in a Grand Tour.

After a hard start to the race and a switch in duties, riding as race leaders, it is just about EF's riders finding their stage-hunting best again in this Tour.

"Today I actually felt quite good," Powless said. "Yesterday I was really disappointed in my legs again, but then today I felt good again, so who knows what's coming."

Sweeny has impressed in the climbs, largely in support of Healy, after putting a lot of work and training into his climbing over the winter, and maybe hasn't quite got the result he wanted, but is at a good point towards the end of the second week.

"It took me a little while to get going this Tour, to be honest, I was hoping to hit the ground running, particularly after the first day in the crosswinds, but I didn't really have the legs I was hoping for in the days coming after that," he explained. "But I sort of found my legs and a reason to go hard with Ben, so I'm pretty happy with what I've accomplished so far."

Be it with Healy, Powless, Sweeny or another of EF's opportunistic team, what's sure is that the end of their stint in yellow is not the end of the American team's ambitions in this Tour.

"We've got a lot still to give in the rest of the Tour, so I'm excited to see what we can do," Sweeny assured.

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