The distance Ben Healy has travelled over the past ten days could be measured in the rueful smile he wore after just missing out on the podium at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
The Irishman was a most spirited chaser behind lone winner Remco Evenepoel, but he ultimately had to settle for fourth place after he was outsprinted by Tom Pidcock and Santiago Buitrago on Quai des Ardennes.
“If you’d told me a couple of weeks ago that I’d be disappointed with a fourth in Liège, I mean, that’s pretty crazy,” Healy said after he had crossed the line. “Fourth is a nice result, I think.”
La Doyenne was billed beforehand as a duel between Evenepoel and Tadej Pogačar, but the Slovenian crashed out before the turn in Bastogne. Evenepoel became the outright favourite in that moment and his team raced accordingly. Soudal-QuickStep dictated the terms all afternoon before Evenepoel delivered the decisive blow over the top of the Côte de la Redoute.
Healy had been well positioned in Evenepoel’s orbit ahead of the attack and although he was unable to track the world champion’s acceleration, he rode doggedly in pursuit of second place, trying to forge clear on the Côte de la Roche aux Faucons.
On the run-in to Liège, he had Pidcock and Buitrago for company, and he wound up leading out the sprint after trying to press clear in the final kilometre.
“QuickStep took it up from the start and it was another attritional race again,” Healy said. “Maybe I lacked a bit on the climbs today, but I sort of dieselled away. I sort of didn’t have it to drop them on Roche aux Faucons.
"In the sprint, I maybe jumped a little bit too early. I sensed a bit of hesitation, and I was hoping they’d look at each other, but I gave it a go.”
Two weeks ago, Healy helped out his EF Education-EasyPost team by distributing bidons from the roadside during Paris-Roubaix, but he would play a leading role in the races that followed.
After placing second at Brabantse Pijl, Healy repeated the feat at Amstel Gold Race, where he was part of the winning move that went clear with over 80km to go. He would later prove the best of the chasers behind a rampant Pogačar, dropping his former Trinity Racing teammate Pidcock in the finale.
The 22-year-old has already won the GP Industria & Artigianato and a stage of the Settimana Coppi e Bartali this season, and he is now set to return to Italy for a Grand Tour debut at the Giro d’Italia. In the longer term, however, he has designs on returning to the Ardennes with loftier goals.
“It would be nice to say that maybe I could come and compete for the win at races like this in the future,” Healy said. “But again, if you’d told me that two weeks ago, I would have bitten your hand off for it.”
