Ben Healy suffered a nasty incident, when the racing was really on, after the crowd was so big it was bursting out into the path of the riders (Photo: A Garofalo)
Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) spent more of Strade Bianche on the backfoot than he would have liked, though a nasty incident while the pressure was really on did not exactly help his cause.
Healy fought his way into the chasing group, behind lone leader and eventual winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), after initially finding himself in the third group on the road as the key splits began to take hold with about 80km left to race.
Pogačar turned it on during the Monte Sante Maria gravel sector – the hardest in the race – and once he got a gap on tha climbs there, he was solo for the remaining 79km.
The best of the chasers halved his gap – from two minutes to one – by the finish, with Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) in particular once again confirming the hype around him is very much based on reality.
Once Healy got into the main chasing group behind Pogačar, he let some of the others do the riding as he kept a low profile, trying his best to keep his powder dry for the tough finish.
With about 51km to go, the Irishman attacked off the front, but with Wout vam Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Tom Pidcock (Pinarello Q36.5) at the head of the 12-man group at the time, he was closed down quite quickly.
About 10km later, on the Le Tolfe gravel sector, 19-year-old Seixas took it up on the front, as he did for much of the race. Pogačar had built his advantage to just over two minutes at that point, which was the maximum he got.
Van Aert then took over on the front on the same sector, followed by Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates XRG) and Pidcock. As Van Aert pushed really hard, Healy tried to move up on the inside, between Pidcock and the crowd on his left.
But just at that point, the large crowd bulged out into the riders’ path, with Healy hitting a spectator, or being shunted by him. He was pushed with a jolt to his right, shouldering del Toro quite hard as the gravel sector kick up. And while they somehow stayed upright, Healy got quite a jolt and was forced to unclip.
Though some of the images appeared to show a spectator’s leg stretched out into the road, towards the riders, it was unclear if the Healy incident was deliberate. The spectators closest to the road were themselves likely shunted into the path of the riders by the sheer size of the crowd at the exact spot where Healy was hit.
The Irish rider remained in the group for about another 10km but was distanced by the remains of the chasing group with about 30km still to race.
Seixas and del Toro proved strongest of the chasers, going clear of them before the French teenager distanced the Mexican and took 2nd place, exactly one minute down on Pogačar, with del Toro 3rd at 1:09.
Healy, who was 4th last year, did not look quite as strong today. He was caught out a couple of times, even in the first half of the race, on the wrong side of splits and was forced to chase.
However, though he looked slightly below par – and endured that nasty incident with just over 41km to go, he was still 12th, at 3:52. He perhaps needed another race or two to whip himself into top shape, but today should have done the trick.