Ben Healy will no longer be on the start line for Sunday's Amstel Gold Race and will miss the trio of Ardennes Classics for EF Education-EasyPost as he recovers from a fractured sacrum.
The 25-year-old Irishman will not require surgery, according to a team press release, but will need rest before he resumes riding in two weeks to prepare for his third Tour de France.
“It’s gutting. I’ve just got to roll with the punches. I’m trying not to think about it too much, but it’s going to suck to watch the Ardennes and not be a part of it," Healy said in a team statement. "That’s bike racing. It just is what it is."
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A stage winner at last year's Tour de France and Itzulia Basque Country, Healy crashed during a reconnaissance of this year's Basque Country time trial, held in Bilbao as the opening stage on April 6.
He completed all six stages, even winning a most combative rider prize on the queen stage, but consulted the EF Pro medical team throughout the race due to stiffness. When the pain did not diminish, scans from an MRI revealed "a small, un-displaced mid-sacral fracture", the team confirmed today.
“This week, Ben’s pain increased, so we decided to take him for an MRI. Those scans came back with a non-displaced sacral fracture that will not require surgery,” said EF Pro Cycling Head Doctor Jon Greenwell.
“Since he is unable to ride comfortably, we decided that it is best for him to have some time off to prevent any long-term complications or other injuries that might occur whilst trying to work around this injury. Ben should be back on his bike in about two weeks to begin his preparations for the Tour.”
Amstel Gold Race was set to be his next competition, followed by La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, a familiar calendar of one-day Classics he has completed each of the last three years. In 2023, he was second at Amstel Gold and fourth at Liège, while last year, he was top 10 at all three events, including a repeat on the podium at La Doyenne.
Healy had targeted the Ardennes one-day races since the winter. The team said he would remain home with rest and recovery as his top priority. He hoped to be race-ready again for Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, which begins June 7 in Vizille, France.
“At Itzulia, I thought I was getting better throughout the race, and I thought not too much damage was done. It wasn’t really until I got home that it really started to give me some grief. Since getting home from Itzulia, I haven’t been able to ride," he said.
"Obviously, we needed to find out what was causing the pain. That’s why we went and got the scan in the end. The bone that I fractured is a pretty insignificant bone, so as soon as I don’t have pain, then I should be able to ride as I wish. It’s the pain that we’re worried about, and the risk that I could give myself a secondary injury.
"As soon as there’s no pain, then hopefully we’ll be on track for the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and the Tour. We just need to see how recovery goes first.”
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