![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Healy-Ben-by-Toby-Watson-16.jpg\")
Ben Healy gave his all at the Worlds and Olympics last year, taking very strong results in both, but has progressed even further as a rider since then (Photo: Toby Watson)<\/p>\nBen Healy gave his all at the Worlds and Olympics last year, taking very strong results in both, but has progressed even further as a rider since then (Photo: Toby Watson)<\/p>\n
Ben Healy says he is really look forward to the men\u2019s road race at the UCI World Road Championships in Kigali on Sunday, adding he had checked out the course and he believed it really suits him.<\/p>\n
Those riders willing to take on the race early in the final during the elite women\u2019s event today were rewarded, taking the medals and some of the other placings as the favourites\u2019 group was left to sprint it out for 7th place.<\/p>\n
And if the men\u2019s race went the same way, Healy\u2019s ability and willingness to go for broke from a long way out may really pay off on what looks like a brutal course. Having checked out the circuit, he was sounding very confident and very pleased with the terrain.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m enjoying my time,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s an interesting course and one that, for sure, suits me. The roads are great and we\u2019re just looking forward to racing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a super hard, super attritional course. There\u2019s some steep climbs in there as well. And I just think this is a really nice course for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think with the altitude and the repetition of the climbs it\u2019s just going to be a pretty hard race. If you spend too much too early I think you\u2019ll pay for that at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
Healy was 7th in the Worlds in Switzerland last year after going on the attack. The second-best Irish finisher on the day, in 21st, was Archie Ryan.<\/p>\n
After having to withdraw from the Vuelta with a muscular strain in his right glute, it was hoped Ryan would win his race with time to line out for Ireland at the Worlds. However, that was not the case and he has not traveled to Rwanda with the Irish team.<\/p>\n
In his absence, Healy still has a strong and experienced line-up to call upon as the Irish team is comprised of Eddie Dunbar, Ryan Mullen, Darren Rafferty and Rory Townsend.<\/p>\n
Though the climbers\u2019 course should suit double Vuelta stage winner, Dunbar, he is not best-suited to one-day racing and always prefers stage races. However, he should be a very strong asset for Healy on the climbs, as should Rafferty.<\/p>\n
Powerhouse Mullen and sprinter and breakaway man Townsend are likely to deployed earlier in the race working for the team. Though it is hilly from the start, the non-climbers should be able to negotiate the climbs on the early laps.<\/p>\n
The elite men\u2019s race will be run over 267.5km \u2013 with 5,400m of climbing \u2013 in Kigali on a course between 1,400m and 1,765m above sea level.<\/p>\n
The fact Ireland qualified six places in the race, via its placing in the UCI Nations world rankings, meant Cycling Ireland was able to select all six men who made the longlist for these Worlds, though obviously Ryan is now out through injury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Healy gave his all at the Worlds and Olympics last year, taking very strong results in both,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-164810","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}