Ben Healy continued his superb spring campaign on Sunday, finishing fourth in the prestigious Liège-Bastogne-Liège Classic in Belgium while being the second-strongest rider in the finale 20 kilometres of the event.
The race was won by world champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) who, just as he did last year, soloed to victory in the oldest of cycling’s Monument races. Tom Pidock (Ineos Grenadiers) beat Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious) and Healy in the sprint for second place, just over a minute back.
Healy’s fourth place was the best Irish result since Dan Martin’s runner-up slot in 2017, and only the eighth top-four result by an Irishman in the history of the race. Importantly, it confirmed the superb form he showed this month in taking second in the Amstel Gold Race and La Brabantse Pijl, and marks him out as a major prospect for the future.
“If you’d told me a couple of weeks ago that I’d be disappointed with fourth in Liège ... that’s pretty crazy,” he said afterwards. “Fourth is a nice result, I think.
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“QuickStep [Evenepoel’s team] took it up from the start. It was just another attritional race again. Maybe I lacked a bit on the climbs today but I just dieseled away, I guess.”
Indeed Healy has shown phenomenal ability to keep going under repeated efforts, and while Evenepoel was able to gap him and others on the crucial La Redoute climb with over 30 kilometres to go, Healy appeared to get stronger and stronger from that point, dominating the chase.
He may well have taken second had the final 12 kilometres been tougher, but Pidcock and Buitrago were able to hang on. “I didn’t quite have it to drop them on the Cote de [la Roche-aux] Faucons,” he said. “In the sprint I maybe jumped a little bit too early. I sensed a bit of hesitation and was hoping they would look at each other ... I gave it a go.”
Still just 22 years of age, Healy has been the surprise of the Classics season. He showed superb form in the one day races after netting the first two wins of his pro career in March. The EF Education-EasyPost rider exits this point of the season with far better confidence than before. “It would be nice to say that maybe I could come and compete for a win at races like this in the future,” he said. “If you told me that two weeks ago I would have bitten your hand off for it.”
Also in the Liège-Bastogne-Liège Classic, world number one Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) crashed out of the race with approximately 85 kilometres covered. He sustained fractures to the scaphoid and lunate bones in his left wrist and was due to undergo surgery on Sunday.
Megan Armitage performed solidly in the first-ever Irish participation in the women’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The race was won by the favourite Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx), who became only the second woman in history to complete the triple of Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne and Liège events.
Meanwhile, Katie-George Dunlevy and Linda Kelly have raced to a second gold medal at the Paracycling Road World Cup in Maniago, Italy, adding victory in the tandem road race on Sunday to their time trial success on Friday.
The duo were streets ahead of the competition in the 81.6 kilometre road race, beating nearest rivals Anne Sophie Centis and Elise Delzenne of France by one minute and 13 seconds. A second Irish tandem, that of Josephine Healion and Eve McCrystal, were tenth.
Cycling Ireland is hoping that pairing Dunlevy with Kelly and Healion with McCrystal could qualify two bikes for the 2024 Paralympics.
Other Irish competitors were also in action in the World Cup over the weekend. Richael Timothy was fifth in the women’s C3 road race on Sunday, Chris Burns was sixth in the men’s C2 event, and world champion Ronan Grimes was seventh in the men’s C4 road race. He was part of an 18 man group finishing in the same time as the sprint winner Michele Pittacolo (Italy). Men’s tandem duo Damien Vereker and Mitchell McLaughlin were 14th in their event. On Saturday Declan Sleven finished 29th in the men’s H3 road race.
Armitage was 33rd, five minutes 33 seconds back, and finished ahead of many more experienced and established riders. She has made a big step up this season, winning the final stage plus the overall standings in the Vuelta Extremadura Féminin in March and netting fourth in the recent Grand Prix Féminin de Chambéry.
At home, round 2 winner Caoimhe O’Brien doubled up on Sunday’s third round of the Cycling Ireland National Road Series, sprinting to victory at the end of the women’s Brian O’Loughlin Memorial in Cong, Co Mayo.
She was one of seven lead riders who sprinted it out for the win at the end of the 114 kilometre event, beating Jennifer Neenan (Longcourt Hotel – NCW Wheelers), Ella Doherty (UCD Cycling Club) and her own sister Aoife O’Brien (Spellman-Dublin Port) to the line.
The latter retains leadership of the series, but her sister is closing the gap after her two consecutive victories.
Meanwhile Conor Halvey (Four Masters CC) was best at the end of the 142km men’s race, being part of an early breakaway of ten riders which clipped away inside the first ten kilometres of racing, and then pushing ahead again later with four others. He outsprinted Evaldas Stankevicius (Greenmount CA), Richard Maes (All Human/Velo Revolution Racing Team) and Tim Walton (All Human/Velo Revolution Racing Team) to the line.
All four were part of the original break, as were Samuel Moloney (Burren Cycling Club), Mark Shannon (Burren Cycling Club), Mark McGinley (Four Masters CC), Vladislav Evseev (All Human/Velo Revolution RT), Padraig O’Sullivan (Newcastle West CC) and James
O’Sullivan (Blarney Cycling Club). They were subsequently joined by series leader Daire Feeley (All Human/Velo Revolution RT), Odhran Doogan (Team Caldwell Cycles) and Jason Kenny (UCD Cycling Club) but the latter three missed the subsequent winning move from this break.
Feeley did enough to maintain the series lead, as did junior leader Killian O’Brien (Orwell Wheelers CC).
