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Healy becomes first Irishman in 38 years to lead the Tour de France / Photo: © AFP
Healy becomes first Irishman in 38 years to lead the Tour de France
Ben Healy became the first Irishman since Stephen Roche in 1987 to take the overall lead on the Tour de France on Monday with a relentless attack across eight gruelling hills in the Massif Central.
The 24-year-old EF rider had already won stage six in Normandy, but here the smiley Healy confirmed his promise with a career-defining ride claiming the fabled yellow jersey.
He becomes just the fourth Irishman to wear it following Shay Elliott, back in 1963, Sean Kelly in 1983 and Roche who went on to win an epic race 38 years ago.
Healy's performance even overshadowed that of stage winner Simon Yates, who sat on his wheel all afternoon as they crossed the ancient volcanoes that mark the region.
Such was the Irishman's effort as the escapees rushed through the grey-black volcanic rock villages that he was also awarded the combativity award for the most attacking rider of the day.
"Hats off to him, he's the one that dropped everyone," Yates said of Healy as the escape group was gradually whittled down from 30 to five.
The 2025 Giro d'Italia winner Yates attacked on the last of the day's climbs, with Thymen Arensman of Ineos second and Healy coming third at the line 31sec adrift and having never relented on a punishing day.
Healy was born in Birmingham but chose to represent Ireland in his youth. He is also in the white jersey for the best young rider.
"The stage win I got and the yellow today both mean a lot to me," said Healy, who had a tense wait at the line for Pogacar to cross 4min 51sec adrift and ceding the overall lead, likely for several days.
"This yellow is more for the team who worked so hard to put me here but the stage win possibly means more as it came first," he said.
- French mountain joy -
Race favourites Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard crossed the line together after eight climbs in the Massif Central where they were rarely a wheel's length from each other.
Healy leads the Tour itself by 29sec from defending champion Pogacar, with Belgian Remco Evenepoel in third at 1min 29sec.
Denmark's double Tour de France champion Vingegaard is fourth overall at 1min 46sec, and his Visma teammate Matteo Jorgenson sits fifth.
Third placed overnight, promising young French rider Kevin Vauquelin dropped a minute to finish the day in sixth place overall.
Recompense for the home nation on the national Bastille Day holiday came in the form of Lenny Martinez as he earned the King of the Mountains polka dot jersey with 27 points garnered on the day's stage.
His grandfather Mariano Martinez won the polka dot jersey outright on the 1978 Tour.
Successive escape bids ensued from the off Monday as the 164 remaining riders raced out of Ennezat with top guns Pogacar and Evenepoel finally allowing one to get away over the ever-rolling terrain
Once they did, a gap over five minutes was established by a motivated group that rode so hard over the cattle dotted hills the sprinters were dropped to over 30 minutes at the finish line.
While Tuesday is a rest day, Wednesday's stage 11 is another flat run with a sprinter expected to take the honours in Toulouse.
P. da Silva--JDB
