Published October 25, 2025 08:12AM
2025 has been a transformative season for Ben Healy.
Prior to this year the Irishman was a strong rider with a somewhat predictable racing style. Some notable successes aside, Healy would fire off a flurry of attacks in races which his rivals could anticipate and very often follow.
Think back to stage 9 of the 2024 Tour de France, where Healy rode aggressively on the gravel roads to Troyes but was unable to snap the elastic.
This year was different.
On stage 6 of the Tour Healy put in an inspired surge with 42km to go, rocketing clear of an elite breakaway group on a fast downhill stretch, catching his rivals unawares and soloing to his first Tour stage win.
He followed that up on stage 10 with another powerful performance from a long distance escape, finishing third and taking over the yellow jersey of race leadership.
A very close second atop Mont Ventoux on stage 16 added to a glittering Tour campaign, as did ninth overall plus the prize for most combative rider in the race.
But it was his performance at the recent road world championships which is arguably the standout of his career. Taking third behind Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel was a staggering result, with the bronze medal coming in a direct mano-a-mano clash with the world’s best riders.
So what has made the difference? How has Healy progressed so well in recent years?
‘Probably his best-ever ride’
Gold medalist Tadej Pogačar congratulates bronze medalist Ben Healy at cycling’s road world championships in Kigali, Rwanda, September 28 2025 (Photo: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)
Jacob Tipper knows Healy well: in fact, he has coached him since he was 15 years of age. The two have worked together now for nine seasons, with that partnership remaining and strengthening as Healy moved into the pro ranks.
You don’t mess with a successful collaboration and EF Education-EasyPost has been wise enough to recognize that.
“It’s arguably the best ride I’d say he’s ever done,” Tipper said, when asked to assess Healy’s bronze medal at the worlds.
“Obviously, the power file doesn’t necessarily show that, because it was very much a race that was a death by 1000 cuts, as opposed to any particular super high power numbers like at the Tour. The numbers really under-exaggerate it, because it was just constant battle the whole way through.
“But as a toe-to-toe result with the best riders in the world, with everybody being there, it was special. I think it was probably his best ever ride.”
If the worlds result is indeed his finest showing, it’s important to understand how he got to this point. Back in 2019 the-then 18 year old won a stage of the Tour de l’Avenir, becoming the youngest-ever stage winner. He turned pro with EF Education-EasyPost in 2022 and had a solid first season, but really stepped up a level in 2023.
“I had a really, really solid winter,” Healy told Velo in April of that year. “I know what I need to do to be the best bike rider I can be, and [the winter] was about being consistent and on top of all that. Plus I’ve lost weight this year as well.”
Healy revealed he had been working with a team nutritionist on that area, having a DEXA scan to determine where he was an then running a small energy deficit every day over the winter to gradually shed weight. The amount he lost? A considerable six kilos.
Keeping things loose early on
Aided by one of the most aerodynamic positions in the peloton, Ben Healy has grown into one of the sport’s best breakaway riders. But it took time to hone his talent (Photo: Marco Bertorello / AFP)
What was also important in Healy’s progression was the benefit of a scattergun trial and error approach utilized by his team during his first pro season.
EF Education-EasyPost CEO Jonathan Vaughters explained to Velo how the squad approached things back in 2022.
“One of the oddest things we did with Ben in his first year as a pro was we said, ‘listen, Ben, we don’t know what kind of rider you are yet. So train hard up until the start of the season, but then once the season starts, we want you to just go out and ride your bike for three or four hours a day.
“Don’t push on the pedals too hard any one given day, because your schedule is not really made up yet.’”
The reason for that? Keeping him fresh, perhaps a little bit underdone, so that he could be ready to compete at short notice and in a broad range of events.
“‘We’re going to send you to all kinds of different races,’” Vaughters continued, explaining how the conversation went. “We might call you up two days before days before a race and say, ‘hey buddy, you’re gonna go to this one, and sorry for the last minute notice.’
“‘We want you fresh, and we want you to be able to do all kinds of different races and get the most out of those races, because you’re going into it with a fresh mind and fresh legs. And then in year two, let’s talk about being more specific about how to do things, once we sort of figure you out a little bit.’”
All those factors came together in a very encouraging way in 2023.
Healy took his first international win as a pro in the GP Industrial & Artigianato. He was second in both the Amstel Gold Race and Brabantse Pijl and fourth in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, then won stage 8 of the Giro d’Italia, his first-ever grand tour.
It represented a jump in his level, and showed he was on track for a successful career.
No elephant testicles on the menu
Winning a stage at this year’s Tour de France was the result of years of hard work (Photo: Gruber Images)
Vaughters’ squad has been in existence since 2004, beginning with the small Team TIAA-CREF.
A very considerable number of riders have been employed by the squad in the 21 years since.
In one particular way Healy stands out from the vast majority of those.
“I said this to Ben’s mom and dad when they came to the Tour one day,” Vaughters said. “Ben is one of the very few young riders that we’ve had in recent years that has actually listened to us as management. Most of the time these days with these young hotshot kids, they want to do it the way they saw it on Instagram or on TikTok. They want to do it the way they saw Tadej Pogačar do it.
“They’re like, ‘well, I read that Dr Peter Attia said that you have to eat elephant testicles in order to win.’”
Vaughters may or may not have been serious about that particular example, but the point is clear. He said the team always has to push back a little on such things.
“We’re like, ‘well, okay, maybe, but maybe we should try it out a little bit more of a basic route first, and then get into…’ Again, going back to the eat your meat and potatoes before you get your dessert argument.
“With Ben, we made that argument, and he said, ‘yeah, okay, that makes sense.’”
Being open to that very approach in year one was an example of Healy seeing the bigger picture. Being asked to undertrain slightly and to go to races at a drop of a hat could be hard for an ambitious young rider, but he did it anyway.
“For the most part, most young, 19, 20 year old pros would hate that advice with a passion,” Vaughters said. “But Ben basically said, ‘yeah, okay, sounds good.’ And he did it.”
That plus his work in the years since has all added up.
“I think his progression in the sport of cycling has been way beyond what anyone would have thought when he was a U23 rider,” said Vaughters.
“And partially it’s because he let the sport come to him a little bit, as opposed to forcing it.”
A drop in momentum
Healy had a superb season in 2023, including taking second to Pogačar in the Amstel Gold Race, but 2024 was frustrating (Photo: JASPER JACOBS/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images)
It hasn’t been all plain sailing. Healy’s Tour performances and worlds medal mark him out as one of the best riders in the peloton, but his path to this point hasn’t been linear.
2023 was a great season but 2024 didn’t quite click.
He worked hard, trying to build on the previous year, but he describes the season as a case of close but no cigar.
Things began well with strong GC rides in the Etoile de Bessèges and the Volta ao Algarve, but the Ardennes Classics were far quieter than one year earlier.
Weighing 2024 up earlier this year, Healy told Velo that he overdid things after Tirreno-Adriatico, being fatigued after a heavy block of racing and then going to altitude rather than having some rest.
He was in much better form in the Tour de France, going in long-range breaks on five different occasions, but being hauled back by a UAE Emirates-XRG squad intent on helping Tadej Pogačar take multiple stages.
Another huge break at the Olympic Games might have resulted in a medal, but the timing of his recapture left him exposed. He finished tenth.
Those near-misses were frustrating but they sharpened the resolve of Healy and his coach Tipper in the buildup to 2025. They vowed that things would be different, and worked hard to ensure that was the case.
Two important changes
Ben Healy follows the wheel of coach Jacob Tipper in a race in 2019
For those who have watched Healy racing, there were two big things to tweak. The first was the timing of his attacks, something necessitated by his rivals becoming better at anticipating his moves. The second was the actual force of those surges.
Healy was often one of the strongest riders in a move but as his reputation grew, he found it harder and harder to shake off attentive rivals.
Tipper explains what they did to counteract that.
“We spent time doing video analysis of race footage,” he said, referring to pre-season sessions, as well as others prior to the Ardennes races and the Tour. “We went through the tactical side of things.
“It’s something that cycling probably doesn’t do the best of jobs of compared to, say, footballers every Monday. They are doing that match video feedback, ‘were you in the right place at the right time kind of thing?’ whereas cycling doesn’t traditionally do too much of that.
“So we took that as an opportunity of, let’s go and go through the race footage. I pointed out the things he was doing that were good, things that he was doing that weren’t good.
“He’s done a little bit of work with the sports psychologist as well, in terms of, what is the mental state that’s going on at that point. Why was he becoming a bull to a red cloth and just going wild at times?”
That was the first tweak. The second was to his physiology.
“There was a little bit of nuance to his training in respects to maybe being that bit punchier at times when he needs to be,” Tipper said. “But obviously not too much so, because it’s difficult to do that and also expect to try and keep up on the Hautacam. What God gives you on one hand he takes away with another.
“So while he’s done a little bit of punchy stuff, it was more from a technical perspective, making sure he gets it all out on the bike, rather than a case let’s hit the gym hard and try and get bulky. Because obviously that then takes away from what you need in the mountains.
“So, swings and roundabouts in that respect.
“We did what we could without taking anything away as well.”
Taking on Tadej in the sport’s biggest one day races
Healy put in a huge ride to take bronze in the 2025 road worlds (Photo: David Ramos/Getty Images)
Grabbing a stage, wearing yellow and finishing ninth overall in the Tour are all very motivating for Healy as he recharges during the off season. So too his bronze medal at the world championships, the best Irish result since Sean Kelly placed third in the 1989 worlds.
2026 will be about stepping up another notch. Healy is on an upwards trajectory and could well be on the verge of even bigger results.
However he and Vaughters have told Velo that he won’t change his racing style in a bid to chase the GC at the Tour. He’s an attacking rider, someone who loves to shake things up, and sitting back in the bunch and riding conservatively with an eye on the overall standings just isn’t his thing.
“I think at this moment, the approach will always be the same for me,” Healy told Velo after the Tour.
“Having some time to reflect now, the way that I ended up in GC at the end of this Tour is, I think, the perfect way for me. And it’s the way that I find most enjoyable. I think that would only ever change if I really believed I could fight for a podium.
“The way that I did it this year, going for the stages and kind of hanging in there a little bit and seeing how it ends out seems like a more enjoyable way for me.”
What he will do is specifically target GC in shorter stage races, particularly if the course suits his characteristics. However there too he believes any strong overall result will be due to big breakaway rides rather than more calculated tactics.
What’s clear is that Healy is very, very ambitious. After finishing third to Pogačar at Liège this year, he had one question for the Slovenian: ‘When do you retire?’
And while he was delighted with his bronze medal in this year’s worlds, he gave a post-race interview which underlined a much bigger goal.
Referring to his 2:16 deficit to Pogačar, he showed that the gold medal is what he really wants.
“I still have a couple of minutes to make up somewhere,” Healy said. “I am going to have to go away and work hard for that.”
An advantage over Pogačar
Healy tracks Remco Evenepoel during the road worlds. Both riders are 25 years of age, with Healy being 8 months younger (Photo: Anne-Christine Poujoulat /AFP via Getty Images)
Healy’s bid to be the best could be helped by his age.
He is 25 now, two years younger than Pogačar. The latter is, at 27, at a point where riders tend to reach their physiological peak.
Healy, in contrast, should have more gains to be made through the ageing process, adding to his momentum.
Tipper is taking nothing for granted in that regard, and said the duo will continue working hard together.
“We’ll just continue pushing the right direction and see what happens. It’s a good and terrible part of endurance performance, full stop,” he told Velo. “You never know, you keep pulling the levers and hoping for the right results.
“You’re making the best educated decisions that you can by being aspirational, having these goals and aims. Ultimately, you never know that what the outcome is going to be.
“But Ben’s the one that’s happy to keep looking, to keep trying to find and fight for those gains.
“As long as you have that attitude, then hopefully there’ll be more to find.”