By:
Conor Martin
Ben Healy made history on Monday, becoming only the fourth Irishman to wear the yellow jersey. After an extremely impressive performance on Bastille Day, he leads cycling’s biggest road race, the Tour de France, after 10 stages.
Healy dug deep to finish third and holds a 29-second lead over Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar and follows a list of some big Irish names who achieved the feat before him.
The last Irishman to achieve the feat was Stephen Roche when he led the Tour de France in 1987. Before that Sean Kelly did so in 1983 after a 20-year wait since Shay Elliott became the first-ever Irishman to don the yellow jersey in 1963.
Monday’s success, builds on Healy’s impressive performance on Thursday where he won stage six of the Tour de France.
Ben Healy joins Irish Tour de France greats
Reflecting on adding himself to that list, Healy said, “It’s a fairytale. If you’d told me this before the Tour, I wouldn’t have believed you. A stage win and the yellow jersey is incredible, beyond belief, really.”
“It’s some pretty crazy footsteps to follow, I’m just super proud to represent Ireland and wear the yellow jersey for them. Hopefully, I can do it justice.”
Cycling Ireland coach not surprised by Healy success
Former Olympian Martin Irvine who is currently a high perofrmance coach at Cycling Ireland also reflected on Healy’s achievement on Morning Ireland and said: “I’m not surprised at all. If you have been following at all he has been trending upwards. He’s a world beater on the one-day races, he is a Giro stage winner, he’s been doing the stage races and learning.
“It’s all clicking and it’s all working very well for him,” Irvine told Morning Ireland.
“He’s so laid-back, he’s horizontal, he’s really chilled out. He’s so methodical. He knows exactly what he can do and just goes and does it. It’s kind of painfully easy watching him.
“He’s under my umbrella at the last couple of World Championships. They’re really big days and you’d swear they were just little club league he was doing. It’s impressive.”
Irish social media reacts
As you can expect, Healy’s achievement was well-received back in Ireland, with many taking to X to celebrate the Irishman leading the historic race.
https://twitter.com/SportTG4/status/1944789899049066598
@irishelt said “Outstanding” while @PadraicToolan heaped the praise on Healy with “Brilliant. Well done to Ben Healy with his most recent success at Tour de France on Bastille Day of all days.”
https://twitter.com/EFprocycling/status/1944787286274531822
@rashyykid added “The cycling in Irish, magic. Come on Ben Summerhill is behind you.”
https://twitter.com/SportTG4/status/1944793491906715717
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