Archie Ryan and Ben Healy at the start of Il Lombardia in Como yesterday, though it was not a day for the Irish riders (Photo: Gian Mattia D’Alberto)
Irish riders Ben Healy and Archie Ryan went into Il Lombardia yesterday as part of an EF Education-EasyPost line-up that hoped to at least finish on the podium, with Healy and Richard Carapaz their best bets for the day.
Instead, they came away empty-handed on a day when Healy was not at his best and went out the back of the whittled down group that chased dominant winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) all the way into the finish in Bergamo.
Neither Ryan nor Healy finished the race, while Carapaz crashed. The team’s head sports director, Charly Wegelius, said Healy seemed to run out of gas after the epic season he has had.
“We had high hopes with three big riders coming into the race,” Wegelius said of Healy, Carapaz and also Neilson Powless.
“For Ben, it was obviously one week or one race too long after a long, long season with a lot of highs, including his Tour de France stage win, days in the yellow jersey, and recent third place at worlds.
“Neilson was also struggling a little bit. Going for goals like this late in the year, you always run the risk of running out of gas, and that’s what happened.
“Richie was handling a bit of fatigue as well. We tried to keep his week as light as possible. He was performing well late in the race, and then he had that crash, and that was the end of it. That’s cycling.
“We hoped for more, but I am glad that Richie’s injuries don’t seem to be as serious as they could have been and he shouldn’t be held back this winter.”
Ireland had three starters in the race, with Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco AlUla) the sole finisher, in 38th at 7:07.