EF Education-EastPost team boss Jonathan Vaughters has described Ben Healy as "the best breakaway rider in the world" ahead of the Tour de France, where the Irish rider will look to score similar success to 12 months ago, when he won a stage and wore the yellow jersey.
Healy has become one of the masters of the escape in recent seasons, utilising his elite aerodynamics, meticulous planning, and time-trialling engine to take long-range solo wins from the break, be that at Itzulia Basque Country, the Giro d'Italia, or the Tour de France.
It was on stage 6 of last year's race that he took the biggest win of his career, launching 42km from the finish in Vire Normandie and riding away from the other budding breakaway hopefuls. Vaughters is expecting his Irish star to do the same in 2026 as they look to be a constant presence in the breaks.
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"If there's one stated goal that I'd love for this team, it is that every breakaway that makes it to the finish line, we have somebody in there competing for that stage," Vaughters told reporters, including Cyclingnews, at the team's pre-Tour press conference on Friday.
"That's an obvious goal for us, I mean, and Ben, bluntly put, is the best breakaway rider in the world, so of course we're gonna be going for that."
Healy is one of the riders who optimises his kit to the maximum on road stages, often donning a TT skinsuit on the key days he is targeting and ensuring he leaves no performance out on the road when it comes to his aero position.
Even still, his previous successes have made him something of a marked man when it comes to breakaway formation and the finales of days when the escapees make it to the line, with other riders knowing that if they can hang onto his wheel, he might pull their group all the way. But he isn't concerned, having had to race with that attention ever since he left the field in his wake on the road to Fossombrone at the 2023 Giro.
"If I'm being honest, I think people in the peloton kind of realised what I could do in 2024, and I definitely still had that like marked feeling about it," said Healy on the eve of the Grand Départ near Barcelona.
"So I think it's not just something that's occurred this year that I'm having to deal with; it's something, actually, that I've been dealing with for a couple of years now. Maybe it's a little bit more extreme, but I still go about it the same way."
Despite Vaughters' high praise for his star rider, who is leading the team's ambitions in July alongside potential GC option and elite stage hunter, Richard Carapaz, Healy spoke openly about how he plays on his experience once faced with an opportunity from the break.
"I actually think I wasn't so good at it not so long ago," Healy said when asked about the brutality of break formation at the Tour and making it into the right moves. "I've just had to really learn from that, and I guess, because I have specialised in breakaways, it's a really key part of it.
"I'm still learning every day with it, but it's just about keeping a cool head, and something that I personally do is just relive scenarios that I've already been a part of, and then I think it can give you confidence that the decisions you're making are based on something. That's how I try and analyse as I'm racing."
Healy will certainly be among the top attackers at the race, but he heads into the Tour without much of a season to write home about so far, having been hampered by injury and illness throughout 2026, notably fracturing his sacrum and missing out on his favoured Ardennes Classics.
"It's been a bit crap, to be honest, like just as I feel like I'm getting going again, then something seems to hit me," said Healy, who tried to look to the positives.
"I've still had a really good prep for the Tour, and to be honest, I'm just happy to be here in, I think I can say, pretty good shape. I'm ready to race and just want to be at the front and competitive in these breakaways. I think I've brought the shape to do that, so I'll just be putting the injuries and whatever has happened in the past."
Healy's chances for a stage win look most likely towards the end of the first week and during the second week of racing, where he'll be on the move throughout the transitional days, but he'll need to rediscover form he hasn't shown since the end of 2025 if he really wants to live up to Vaughters' description of being "the best breakaway rider in the world."
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