Ben Healy amazes in the Tour de France with a new winning ride

Ben Healy has done it again, he sneaked into the extremely tough breakaway of the day and, with a crazy attack from over 40 kilometers to the finish line, left the company of the rest of the escapees to go victorious towards the arrival of a tough stage through the hills that dot the Normandy region.

Ben Healy lands with victory in Normandy

Tremendous battle fought in Normandy, and we are not talking about what happened more than 80 years ago as a definitive turning point in World War II but about the 6th stage of the Tour de France that ran, over 201 kilometers between Bayeux - Vire Normandie. A route without a single flat meter and with a myriad of small climbs, 6 categorized and many more that could but might not be.

With a clear prediction that the stage was going to be for the breakaway after the effort of yesterday's time trial, after some initial skirmishes at the start, the situation calmed down when Intermarché-Wanty took control of the pace. The reason, the placement of today's intermediate sprint in team 22 which made the contenders for the stage respect the fast men fighting for the green jersey up to that point. A sprint in which Jonathan Milan would easily prevail and with the novelty of the entry into the fight for the coveted jersey of Mathieu van der Poel who crossed the line in second place, ahead of Biniam Girmay.

RECOMENDADO

Moral blow from Pogacar to Vingegaard in a time trial that Remco Evenepoel won

Schurter reunites with his greatest rival of all time in a video that you can't miss

Pinarello could leave INEOS and the team still does not have a replacement brand

€1350 for a saddle? That's the new Prologo PREDATOR 01TT CPC chosen by Jonas Vingegaard

Aleix Espargaró fulfills his dream and debuts today as a professional cyclist in the Tour of Austria with Lidl-Trek

Tadej Pogacar adds his 100th victory in the fourth stage of the Tour de France 2025

From there, the mother of all battles would be unleashed after an initial offensive launched by Ben Healy and Quinn Simmons who kept pace with the peloton for a good handful of kilometers. However, today there were many interests in sneaking into a breakaway that was expected to be victorious, so they were caught and the attacks and counterattacks continued, which meant that the first 100 kilometers were covered at an average speed of over 47 km/h.

In the second of the climbs, a very tough ascent with gradients above 10%, Quinn Simmos attacked again, more people started to join without a cut succeeding until, once crowned, in the ramps that followed, Ben Healy attacked again and a group of very high level was formed with him, the American, Mathieu van der Poel, Will Barta, and Harold Tejada. They would have to maintain a tough battle with the peloton that would last several tens of kilometers, with some more riders joining when the difference was reduced to a minimum like Michael Storer or Simon Yates. However, finally, as usually happens in these cases, the peloton ended up surrendering and the difference began to increase bringing calm to the race.

When everyone was already looking at the tough last climb, just 5 kilometers from the finish line or the tough final ramp as points to resolve the breakaway, at 42 km from the finish line, when no one expected it, Ben Healy did it again and launched a crazy attack that, although the group did not break up and maintained the chase, resulted in another tremendous exhibition by the Irish cyclist.

Quinn Simmons and Michael Storer would jump in pursuit, but too late, when the difference was already insurmountable. Meanwhile, Van der Poel tried to hold firm with the incentive of being able to regain the yellow jersey he lost yesterday in the time trial but he yielded to his breakaway companions on the last climb, probably affected by the intense heat that battered the cyclists after a Tour start with cool temperatures and even rainy days.

Mathieu van der Poel arrived 3 minutes 58 seconds behind the Irishman, totally exhausted, however, the tension remained until the arrival of the peloton and, despite Tadej Pogacar sprinting on the final ramp, Mathieu van der Poel finally managed to regain the yellow jersey by just 1 second, a garment he will try to keep until the mountainous stage next Monday where, obviously, the general classification contenders will take the lead.

Stage 6 Classification

1. Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) 4h24'10''
2. Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) +2'44''
3. Michael Storer (Tudor) +2'51''
4. Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-AlUla) +3'21''
5. Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) +3'24''
6. Will Barta (Movistar) +3'29''
7. Harold Tejada (XDS-Astana) +3'52''
8. Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +3'58''
9. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +5'27''
10. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +5'27''

General Classification

1. Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) 21h52'34''
2. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +01
3. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) +43''
4. Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) +1'00''
5. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +1'14''
6. Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) +1'23''
7. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +1'59''
8. Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) +2'01''
9. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +2'32''
10. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +2'36''