Recent from current success within the Ardennes Classics, Ben Healy has now made his Grand Tour debut on the Giro d’Italia, the place the younger Irish racer hopes to mix serving to EF Training-EasyPost GC leaders Hugh Carthy and Rigoberto Urán with a crack at a stage or two himself.
After coming fifteenth within the opening time trial, the 22-year-old informed Cyclingnews on the stage 2 begin that he was not overly glad along with his consequence however hopes for higher luck additional down the road.
“My consequence was a bit decrease than I anticipated, I prefer to assume I can do a very good time trial on my day and I’ve come right here feeling recent after the Ardennes,” Healy informed Cyclingnews, in an understated reference to his present Irish Nationwide TT title.
“It was pan flat for the primary half, and being 60 kilos, I am positive that does not assist, however it might have been nicer to have had a greater consequence on the finish. I attempted to carry one thing again after which smash it on the climb.”
Nonetheless, because the shock success story of the Ardennes Classics, with second locations in Amstel Gold Race and Brabantse Pijl in addition to fourth in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Healy clearly has no worry of performing above expectations. On the 2023 Giro d’Italia, there’s no figuring out the place his ambitions will take him.
Healy mentioned that the Italian Grand Tour had at all times been his important precedence for the primary half of the season and that the Ardennes had been “extra last-minute for me.”
“Once I noticed I used to be going nicely, I believed there was no hurt in carrying on with the Ardennes program,” he defined.
His important objectives within the Giro are to assist Urán and Carthy “firstly, however there will likely be some alternatives for us stage hunters.”
He and his EF teammates got here by the unhealthy crash on the finish of stage 2 unscathed, the staff mentioned on Twitter, though he, Carthy and Urán all had been caught behind the pile-up and misplaced 19 seconds on GC.
After the time trial, his subsequent goal, Healy mentioned, is solely to get extra of a sense for the occasion, after which he’ll start to see what he can goal subsequent.
“I am going to take the alternatives when and the place they arrive, however first I’ll see how the race is raced. After that, I am going to take it from there.”
