Ireland’s Healy pulls off solo win at Tour de France

Ireland’s Ben Healy won stage six of the Tour de France in Normandy on Wednesday with a long solo break, as Mathieu van der Poel reclaimed the overall leader’s yellow jersey by one second.

Sixth at the start of the day, Van Der Poel climbed above overnight leader Tadej Pogacar to retake the race lead.

Healy became the first Irish stage winner since Sam Bennett on the Champs Elysees in 2020.

American champion Quinn Simmons came second, and Michael Storer put Team Tudor on the Tour podium for the first time in third.

Healy and Van der Poel were part of a nine-man mid-race escape. The Irishman broke solo knowing that if he waited for the final ascent he had little chance of beating the proven climbing experts in the breakaway.

He made his move on a flat section, 32 kilometres out. As he pulled to the left and accelerated, the eight others dithered as the distance widened.

For Pogacar, allowing the Dutch powerhouse to sneak into the escape meant he got rid of the overall lead and relieved himself of media duties and the draining hullabaloo that comes with wearing the yellow jersey.

Once Healy had broken away, even Van der Poel sat up, saving energy, possibly for Thursday’s run the the Mur de Bretagne, scene of his 2020 triumph to seize the Tour lead he kept for eight days.

The Dutch Alpecin rider wilted at the end on Thursday. Behind Pogacar and arch-rival Jonas Vingegaard raced up the final 10 percent slope, but van der Poel regained the lead by the narrowest margin.

Stage six was intense from the off over a series of hills between Bayeux and Vire as temperatures rose above 26.5 Celsius (80 Fahrenheit) with the peloton putting the hammer down at 47kph (29mph) average over the first three hours.