Ben Healy joins greats of Irish cycling with breakaway stage win at Giro d'Italia

BEN HEALY ADDED his name to an elite list of Irish cyclists as he soloed away to a brilliant breakaway win at the Giro d’Italia on Saturday.

At 22, Healy’s magnificent performance sees him become the second youngest Irish winner of a stage on one of cycling’s Grand Tours — and just the ninth Irish rider ever to do so.

Making his Grand Tour debut in this year’s race, Healy hit the front with 50km remaining on Stage Eight from Terni to Fossombrone, and quickly put daylight between himself and his nearest pursuers.

He stretched his advantage out to well over two minutes as he entered the final kilometres, showing no signs of faltering as he rode away to the biggest moment of his young career.

Healy took the stage with 1:49 to spare over Derek Gee, Filippo Zana and Warren Bargeuil.

"Irish cycling has a 𝙗𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙣𝙚𝙬 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙧!" 🇮🇪⭐

Ben Healy wins Stage 8 of the Giro d'Italia on his Grand Tour debut - with minutes to spare 👀@EFprocycling | #giroditalia pic.twitter.com/LJkevY9R8M

— Eurosport (@eurosport) May 13, 2023

Drama unfolded in the overall race as Primoz Roglic attacked race favourite Remco Evenepoel.

While Roglic managed to drop Evenepoel, Ineos pair Geraint Thomas and Tao Geoghegan Hart also skipped past the Belgian as the trio managed to trim his advantage in the standings by about 15 seconds.

Evenepoel had come under criticism overnight for having returned to his hotel from an Apennine peak by helicopter.

Ireland’s other rider in this year’s race, Eddie Dunbar, finished in 18th, one place ahead of Evenepoel.

Dunbar remains 11th in the general classification, but is just one second outside the top 10.

Norway’s Andreas Leknessund retained the overall lead ahead of Evenepoel while Roglic climbed to third.

Leknessund is almost certain to lose his pink overall jersey on Sunday when the Giro stages its second of three individual time trials, a 35km run to Cesena. 

– Additional reporting by AFP