Ben Healy's spectacular progression in 2023 continued apace in the Giro d'Italia on Saturday, as barely a week into his first-ever Grand Tour, the 22-year-old notched up his first-ever stage win in a WorldTour level event with a 52-kilometre solo attack.
When the EF Education-EasyPost racer disappeared up the road from a day-long break with the hardest segment of the hilly 207-kilometre stage yet to come, it seemed as if the Irishman had set himself an almost impossibly ambitious task.
But his move succeeded in style, with Healy comfortably handling his advantage on the two category 4 climbs and a category 2 that followed, and finally claiming his country's first win since Dan Martin at Sega di Ala two years ago by an impressive margin of nearly two minutes.
Healy's latest success at Fossombrone comes hard on the heels of no fewer than three standout performances in the Ardennes Classics, taking second in the Brabantse Pijl, second in Amstel Gold and fourth in Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Merely taking part in his first Grand Tour at the Giro d'Italia represented another big step forwards for Healy, but for now he's showing no sign of slowing down, and that's even with form which he says is probably not as strong as a month ago in Belgium.
"The Giro was a bit of a gamble, to be honest," Healy said. "I had to recover after Liège and I spent 10 days off, just hoping the form would come through. So I'm maybe not as good as I was in the Ardennes, but for sure I was good today."
Healy said that he was already on a steep learning curve and had made some mistakes on stage 4, where the maglia rosa was up for grabs for those in the break of the day.
"At the start of the year, I wanted to get a stage win and potentially the pink, but I got a bit excited going for the break on stage 4 and blew it," Healy said.
"Sometimes I get too excited and I need to kind of sit back and reset. So I took those lessons and applied them today. And I put a big cross in the Garibaldi [Giro route book] for this stage as one where I could do something."
He said he had no idea if he could stay away to the finish when he went on such a long-distance attack, "but I had to try and pace it really well." His time trialling skills - he's currently Irish National TT champion - arguably helped him in that. But given his sprint is not the best and already lost him the Brabantse Pijl in a two-up duel against Dorian Godon (AG2R-Citroen), Healy said he knew that he could not risk doing anything but reaching the finish alone. "I 100% wanted to arrive solo," he said, "that's what I'll always try to do.
"I don't have the most amazing power, but I still put it out, I spin a high cadence and it works for me."
Formerly part of the same Team Wiggins and Trinity line-ups as Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) and Tom Gloag (Jumbo-Visma), The question of where Healy goes from here remains to be seen. But while Pidcock's career to date needs no introduction, and Gloag is currently racing the Giro alongside the Irishman, Healy said that as yet he has no idea if he will fight for GC in the future, nor even what will happen between here and the end of the Italian Grand Tour.
"I really don't know yet," he said. "The longer climbs they have here - I've not got too much experience with those.
"I've done races as long as 10 days, and for now I feel like someone who can cope with the fatigue you get on Grand Tours. I don't seem to drop off as much as other guys. But it's still really an unknown for me."
Healy's 2023 was already a major success even before he started the Giro. After winning a stage before the Giro d'Italia has even reached its first rest day, anything that happens now to Healy is a bonus in a race that already can be considered his latest of multiple 2023 breakthroughs.
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