Ben Healy promises to ride with 'air of unpredictability' at Tour de France as EF Education-EasyPost lineup announced
Irishman aiming to impress again, a year after stage-winning and yellow jersey heroics
Ben Healy has promised to race with an "air of unpredictability" at the Tour de France as he was revealed as one of EF Education-EasyPost's eight riders for this year's race.
The Irishman finished ninth overall last year, and was one of the riders of the race for the way he relentlessly attacked on his way to a stage win and a day in the yellow jersey.
He will be joined by Richard Carapaz, Kasper Asgreen, Michael Valgren, Alex Baudin, Sean Quinn, Max Walker, and Georg Steinhauser, as the team seek to hit those highs again. Find out who else is riding the Tour here.
"Last year was a standout year and it would be amazing to replicate it, but even half that success would still be a successful Tour in my eyes," Healy said. "There’s not too much pressure – I just want to be up front and in a fight for a stage win, maybe even two. There are a lot of hard transitional stages this year, so I think there'll be plenty of opportunities for breaks."
Healy is yet to win a race in 2026, but says he is in "good shape and ready to race".
"Our team is super strong and pretty well balanced," he argued. "We can go into this Tour with any goal in mind and be adaptable to any situation. We have a lot of experience, a lot of young guys – it's going to be a fun one.
"I have had a good prep. I did an altitude camp, which I was able to do the full block of, and then Dauphiné as a prep race – even though I got sick, I didn't really miss too much and was able to get back into training fairly quickly. And yeah, some heat work in Mallorca. Hopefully that's me ready.
"I will just have to race the same way, with an air of unpredictability. Even if they know how I'm going to race, if it's still unpredictable then it's still hard to predict. Even last year people kind of knew who I was and I was still able to do it. So nothing's going to change really – just going to try and rinse and repeat."
Carapaz won the polka dot jersey along with a stage in 2024, but was forced to miss both last year's Tour and this year's Giro d'Italia.
"I'm very motivated for this Tour," the Ecuadorian said. "After a long period at home training at altitude, things have gone really, really well. I'm coming in with high motivation and, above all, high morale, which I think is crucial for starting this great race. I am very happy and very eager. I believe that's the most important thing for the start of this Tour."
Britain's Walker will make his Grand Tour debut on Saturday. "It doesn't really feel real at the moment," he said. "I don't think it will till I get there, but it's really exciting. I can't really believe it's happening."
