Irish national time trial champion Ben Healy continued his superb run of early-season form when he finished second at the prestigious Amstel Gold Race in the Netherlands.
ealy matched the best Irish result in the Dutch one-day Classic 41 years after Stephen Roche finished second behind five-time home winner Jan Raas. The 22-year-old Healy finished behind two-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates) after spending much of the 253km-long race in the front group.
Healy, who also finished second in Belgian Classic Brabantse Pijl on Wednesday, was part of a 16-strong group that went clear at the front with about 100km of racing remaining.
“At that point we still had Neilson (Powless) behind,” Healy told Independent.ie. “He was our main leader for the team, so I kind of got a free ride. I was still rolling through but not really pulling hard turns which definitely helped me in the finale.
“Then, as we got closer to the finish, it was a super attritional race. A lot of guys were hurting in that break. You really had to race carefully today, because an important move could happen at any time. Those kind of circumstances suit me well but I think other riders had more trouble with that."
Of that front group, only Healy and British rider Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) were able to follow an attack by Pogacar on the climb of the Eyserbosweg with 36km to go.
Pogacar, who has taken three stage victories and the overall at both Paris-Nice and the Vuelta a Andalucia this year as well as the cobbled Belgian Monument the Tour of Flanders, shrugged off an earlier bike change to drive open a gap to the chasers before simply riding his fellow escapees off his wheel on the climb of the Kautenberg with 28km to go.
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Although Healy lost contact first, the EF Education-Easypost pro managed to claw his way back up to Pidcock and the duo put in a concerted chase before Healy attacked his former Trinity Racing team-mate with 14km to go.
“We kept working pretty well together, but the first time up the Cauberg I could just feel that his legs were hurting so I gave it a dig on the next climb,” said Healy, whose strong time-trialling skills saw him close to within 20 seconds of Pogacar at one point before growing out to 38 seconds by the line, where a very impressive Healy finished a minute and a half clear of Pidcock to claim the second step on the podium.
“I had a bit of a ride to the finish but it was good,” said the 22-year-old. “I think that dig closed the gap a bit but as soon as Pogacar heard the gap was coming down he clearly had more in reserve and pulled away again. The legs were good today so it was nice to prove to myself that I can do it in good company. Second to the best in the world, I can’t be unhappy with that.”
With two victories already under his belt and two white jerseys for best young rider at the Tour de Pays Loire and the Coppi e Bartali stage races respectively, it’s been a breakout season for Healy, who tackles Fleche-Wallonne on Wednesday and Liege-Bastogne-Liege on Sunday.
“I really took a step up this year, which is great. The legs were very good again today and I hope to continue this run of form.”
Healy’s podium placing capped a great weekend for young Irish riders as Darren Rafferty took fifth place in the U-23 Liege-Bastogne-Liege classic on Saturday, just days after finishing in the same position at the prestigious Giro del Belvedere U-23 race. Meanwhile, Offaly rider Megan Armitage finished fourth at the Grand Prix Feminin de Chambery.