Three days after he spent Paris-Roubaix handing out bidons to his EF Education-EasyPost teammates, Ben Healy was back racing and back in the results at the Brabantse Pijl.
The current Irish National Time Trial Champion and winner of this year’s GP Industria & Artigianato in Italy came close to another victory after he and France’s Dorian Godon (AG2R-Citroën) broke away late in the Belgian semi-Classic.
Godon out powered Healy in the final sprint to claim a key victory for the French team, with pre-race favourite and AG2R teammate Benoît Cosnefroy taking third.
Healy is enjoying a successful spring. He has won twice in Italy as well as taking third in the season-opener Trofeo Calvia in Spain. His second place in the arduous Brabantse Pijl, which includes 25 climbs and was held in the rain, represented another step up in the 22-year-old’s budding career.
Three days earlier Healy had been travelling reserve for EF Education-EasyPost at Paris-Roubaix. As no one got injured or sick in the immediate countdown to the Queen of the Classics, he spent the day working with staff handing out bidons during the race to his teammates.
A team video captured the moment Healy handed out bidons to his teammates.
"I was more nervous than the riders," Healy admitted. "They were coming at 50km/h and it's not as easy as you think, so big up the soigneurs."
After his runner’s up spot in Brabantse Pijl, Healy is now due to head onto the Ardennes Classics, before hopefully taking part in the Giro d’Italia, his first Grand Tour, in May, he told Eurosport after the race.
"It was nice, I could feel the legs were good and I gave it a good go but there was a guy [Godon] just as strong as me. The gallop to the line - I always knew how it was going to go and I tried to play the game the best I could. But it wasn't to be,” Healy said.
Briefly on a lone attack with around 30 kilometres to go after bridging across with three other riders to the remnant of the day-long break, Healy then fought on with Godon as the Frenchman and Irishman moved ahead for a duel in the finale.
"I knew I had to give it a good go so I laid it all out there. I know I don't have the best sprint in the world, so I had try and sit on and save the legs as best as possible, but when he [Godon] opened up I had nothing to give, so that was that,” he commented.
"For sure I've made a good step up over the winter and I'll try and keep the ball rolling and I feel a lot more confident which is super-nice."
"I'll do the rest of the Ardennes, a big goal for the team, and hopefully it'll be onto the Giro after that."
