Ben Healy has recaptured Irish cycling’s glory days of the 1980s at the Worlds today, having done the same at the Tour de France in July (Photo: Luca Bettini-SCA-Cor Vos)

Ben Healy (Team Ireland) has taken an incredible bronze medal in the men’s road race at the UCI World Road Championships in Kigali, Rwanda, turning the clock back to the golden era of the 1980s for Irish cycling.

It means Healy has become the first Irish cyclist to win a medal in the senior road race at the Worlds since Sean Kelly claimed bronze in Chambéry, France, in 1989.

And he takes that medal at the end of a brilliant season for him, during which he also won a stage at the Tour de France and then battled again to take the yellow jersey. That was the first time an Irish cyclist took the Tour yellow jersey since Stephen Roche won the Tour in 1987.

Today, Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia) attacked with 100km to go to take the title, defending the Worlds crown he took in Switzerland last year. A chase group formed behind him, from which TT world champion, Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) proved strongest to take the silver, at 1:28.

Ben Healy 3rd 🥳🥳🥳🥳⁦⁦@CyclingIreland⁩ @UCIRWANDA⁩ pic.twitter.com/bq33X6YpQ5

— UCD Cycling (@UCD_Cycling) September 28, 2025

And then came Healy, also finishing on his own for bronze to once again take Irish cycling back to the heights of those Kelly-Roche glory days in the 1980s. He was 2:16 down on the winner today but the time gap means nothing and the medal is monumental.

How the Worlds unfolded

Pogačar today again went very long, just as he did in Switzerland last year. He attacked with 100km remaining of the 267.5km race, with 5,400m of climbing.

He made his move on Mont Kigali, the largest of the climbs today, and tackled only once. At 5.9km in length, it averaged 6.7 per cent gradient, but with pitches of up to 13 per cent.

This time the Tour de France champion had company, but those riders – including Evenepoel, Juan Ayuso (Spain) and Richard Carapaz (Ecuador) were unable to hold him.

Of the three who moved with Pogačar, Mexico’s Isaac del Toro stayed with him for the longest but eventually unable to follow the wheel.

Del Toro had missed the initial acceleration and had to bridge across to Pogačar, with only Ayuso still with him at that point. And though Evenepoel was initially with Pogačar and was dropped, he had a mechanical issue, with his saddle, at the time.

A chase group formed behind Pogačar and del Toro and it included: Healy, Carapaz, Skjelmose, Hindley, Michael Matthews (Australia), Primoz Roglič (Slovenia), Julien Bernard (France), Pavel Sivakov (France), Harold Tejada (Colombia), Paul Seixas (France), Marc Hirschi (Switzerland), Bauke Mollema (Netherlands), Cian Uijtdebroeks (Belgium) and Ayuso.

And just behind that chase was a second group, which contained Evenepoel, Pidcock and others. They caught the first chase group and created a large group, of about 20, all riding in pursuit of Pogačar and del Toro.

With 90km to go, the two leaders had 50 seconds, with the chasing group continuing to grow, and eventually reaching about 40 riders; a reduced peloton.

Del Toro was initially dropped by Pogačar on the on the cobbled Kimihurura climb with just over 80km to go. However, Pogačar waited for him, which resulted in the chasers closing the gap to about 45 seconds.

Healy began to show fantastic form at that point and attacked out of the chase group on the climb in a bid to shake things up. As that was happening, Evenepoel was being forced to stop and change bikes and vented his frustration when his team car took what seemed like an age to arrive.

By the time Evenepoel got going again, he was one minute behind the Healy group, and 1:45 down on the leading duo.

Healy managed to get clear with Sivakov and Mikkel Honoré (Denmark). They gained a few seconds on the large chase group with about 70km to go.

Shortly after that, with about 66km to go, on the Côte de Kigali Golf, Pogačar attacked del Toro and this time dropped him for good.

Del Toro as then caught by Healy, Sivakov and Honoré and that four-man group was 55 seconds behind Pogačar at that point of the race. However, behind them, Evenepoel was back in the chase group and leading the charge after the four just up ahead.

On the Côte de Kimihurura, Evenepoel pushed on with Pidcock, Hindley Skjelmose in what immediately looked like a significant selection.

And when they got across to the four, that enlarged group soon split again, leaving Evenepoel, Healy, Pidcock, Skjelmose and Hindley chasing lone leader Pogačar, who was one minute up the road and headed for gold.

However, on the Côte de Kimihurura – with about 45km to go – Evenepoel squeezed on the pedals, with Hindley and Pidcock spat out the back.

That left Evenepoel, Healy and Skjelmose chasing Pogačar and that was the way it stayed for a long time.

With 20km to go, Evenepoel attacked and went solo after Pogačar. So that left Healy and Skjelmose still together and looking set for a two-up fight for bronze through the last lap.

And with 5km to go came the sight Irish cycling wanted to see; Healy dropping Skjelmose. And with just one climb to go, it looked like Ben Healy had the bronze.

That was indeed the case. Untouchable, Pogačar won gold by 1:28 from Evenepoel, with Healy 3rd at 2:16 and Skjelmose 4th at 2:53.