IRELAND’S BEN HEALY was pleased with his second-place finish at the Amstel Gold Race in the Netherlands yesterday.
“Second to the best in the world, I can’t be unhappy with that,” the Irish national time trial champion said afterwards.
Double Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar came out on top, with Great Britain’s Tom Pidcock also on the podium in third.
Healy spent much of the 253km race in the front group, a 16-strong contingent moving clear with about 100km to go.
“At that point we still had Neilson (Powless) behind,” Healy said. “He was our main leader for the team, so I kind of got a free ride. I was still rolling through but not really pulling hard turns which definitely helped me in the finale.
“It was a super attritional race. A lot of guys were hurting in that break. You really had to race carefully today, because an important move could happen at any time. Those kind of circumstances suit me well but I think other riders had more trouble with that.”
Pogacar, Healy and Pidock broke away, the eventual winner opening a sizeable gap and powering to a dominant solo win (6:02.02). Healy won the battle for second, 38 seconds back, while Pidock was a further 90 seconds behind.
“I had a bit of a ride to the finish but it was good,” the 22-year-old added. “The legs were good today so it was nice to prove to myself that I can do it in good company.”
