Ben Healy has really hits the heights this year but his EF Education-EasyPost team boss, Jonathan Vaughters, tells stickybottle his climb to success over the last few years is down to his key attitudes (Photo: Xavier Pereyron)
By Shane Stokes
Stage winner at the Tour de France, yellow jersey wearer at the same race and bronze medallist at the world championships. It’s been the best season yet for Ben Healy, and everything points to an even bigger one next year.
There are all sorts of reasons why he is so good: his aerodynamic shape and position is one, and so too his climbing ability. A newly-improved tactical sense has also helped a lot.
But EF Education EasyPost team boss Jonathan Vaughters believes there’s another major factor behind his rise, and one which has contributed to his steady improvement ever since he turned pro with the team prior to the 2022 season.
“Ben is one of the very few young riders that we’ve had in recent years that has actually listened to us as management,” Vaughters told stickybottle. “I’m not saying that’s the [only] reason that he’s become like one of the best in the world, or whatever else, but when he came onto the team we gave him some advice.
“Most of the time with these young, hot shot kids these days, 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.
“And they’re like, ‘well, I read that the this doctor Peter Attia said that you have to, like, eat elephant testicles or whatever in order to win.’
“And so we sort of always have to fight against that. We’re like, ‘well, okay, maybe, but maybe we should try it out a little bit more of a basic route first. 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.’”
Healy on the podium at the Worlds in September, claiming bronze with a ride for the ages in a race that was so hard it will go down in history as one of the greatest days of the modern era (Photo: Simon Wilkinson-SWpix)
Vaughters is well known for his quirky and often risqué humour. Stickybottle hasn’t found any reference to Attia recommending animal testicle consumption as a performance boost, but the point is made: too many young, impressionable riders are distracted by what they read or watch online, rather than being guided by their teams.
For EF Education-EasyPost, the squad had one priority when it first started working with Healy.
“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,’” Vaughters explained. “‘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.
“‘We’re going to send you to all kinds of different races. We might call you up two days before days before the race and say, Hey buddy, you’re gonna go to this one, sorry for the last minute notice. So we don’t want you tired. What we want you is fresh, even if you’re a little under conditioned. 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 figure you out a little bit…’”
Ben Healy took his first major pro victory on stage 13 of the Giro two years ago and since then his climb to the top has gathered pace (Photo: Fabio Ferrari)
Vaughters told Stickybottle that such a request would be met with resistance by many.
“For the most part, most young, 19, 20 year old pros would hate that advice with a passion,” he continued. “But Ben basically said, ‘yeah, okay, sounds good.’ And he did it.’”
‘HE LET THE SPORT COME TO HIM, INSTEAD OF FORCING IT’
Healy had a relatively modest first season as a pro. His sole victory was at the Irish national TT championships, with solid rather than spectacular international results.
These included fifth on a stage of the Tour of Norway, sixth in the European TT championships and sixth in the prologue of the Deutschland Tour.
But there was a marked leap in performance in year two, with victories early on in the GP Industria & Artigianato and on stage 3 of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali. He also finished third overall in the latter event.
He went on to dazzle in the Ardennes Classics, with second in the Amstel Gold Race and Brabantse Pijl and fourth in Liège-Bastogne-Liège. A stage in in his first Grand Tour, the Giro d’Italia, further generated excitement.
He won the national road race championships and a stage of the Skoda Tour of Luxembourg a little later in the year.
“I think his progression in the sport of cycling has been way beyond what anyone would have thought when he was a U23 rider,” Vaughters said.
“Partially, it’s because he let the sport come to him a little bit, as opposed to forcing it.”
Ben Healy, riding for a UCI composite team, winning a stage at Tour de l’Avenir aged 18 years back in 2019
Healy’s bronze medal in the worlds was deeply impressive and at 25 years of age, he has marked himself out as having the ability to win the race in the future.
His stage win and ninth overall at the Tour de France also bodes well, although Healy has been clear that he won’t adapt a more conservative approach to racing in order to aim for a big overall result.
He has made clear he will keep attacking, keep searching for stages. If he makes time gains doing so he’ll embrace that, but he doesn’t believe in holding back and saving energy until the key mountain stages.
Vaughters agrees with that.
“I don’t think a conservative GC strategy for Ben makes sense, really,” he said. “Eventually, if you get to the point where you’re actually trying to win the Tour, or even podium, then of course you do have to take a different stance.
“But at least for the for the immediate future, I would say that a conservative sort of sit and wait and wait and wait and wait strategy for Ben doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t feel right for him and it doesn’t feel right for the team.”