Ireland's Ben Healy claimed a memorable first Tour de France stage win of his career on Thursday.
Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) produced an aggressive, highly impressive ride, peeling away on a solo attack to take victory on the 201.5 km stage six from Bayeux to Vire Normandie.
In winning a Tour stage he follows in the footsteps of compatriots Shay Elliott, Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche, Martin Earley, Dan Martin and Sam Bennett.
On a terrific day for Irish cycling, Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco–AlUla) finished fourth, having been part of the breakaway all day.
Healy is up to eighth, from 33rd, in the general classification, with Dunbar now 29th overall.
🏆 🇮🇪 Pure Ben Healy style!
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 10, 2025
🏆 🇮🇪 Une victoire dans le pur style Ben Healy !#TDF2025 | @Continental_fr pic.twitter.com/EHZA0N3bsc
Meanwhile Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) wrestled back the leader's yellow jersey from reigning champion Tadej Pogacar.
"It's unbelievable," Healy said afterwards. "I switched on from the start. I knew I needed to get away from the gorup and pick my moment. I think I timed it well.
"I knew what I had to do, just head down and do my best ride to the finish.
"It's what I've worked for not just this year but the whole time really, it's really incredible, hours and hours of hard work from so many people and to pay them back today is really amazing.
"This was a stage I had circled in the book from the start and to do it in the first one is amazing."
Healy attacked from an eight-man breakaway, which included Van der Poel, with over 40km remaining and pulled away to reach the finish line well ahead of American Quinn Simmons with Australian Michael Storer third.
Van der Poel, who lost the overall lead to Pogacar after Wednesday's individual time trial, was unable to keep pace with the breakaway but moved back to the top of the general classification with a gap of one second over the Slovenian champion.
Additional reporting: Reuters
