Ben Healy finishes 10th in Olympic road race
Wordsley’s Ben Healey’s bold bid for a medal in the Olympic cycling road race fell just short as Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel took a brilliant gold in Paris.
Evenepoel became the first man to win both time trial and road race events at an Olympics when he came home more than a minute ahead of the field after more than six hours of racing.
Healey, who competes for Ireland, finished 10th, four seconds behind France’s Christophe Laporte who took bronze to complete another good event for the host nation, with his team-mate Valentin Madouas claiming silver.
No-one could match the strength of Evenepoel, however, who cruised home despite the late scare of having to change his bike due to a mechanical issue.
Healy, who last month competed in his first Tour de France, was typically aggressive in his riding, launching an attack with around 55 miles remaining.
He was still leading until Evenepoel launched his attack with 20 miles to go, wiping out Healey’s 30 second advantage over the field in what felt like the blink of an eye.
“I would have liked to stay at the front but you have to have the legs to do that. I played my cards early,” said Healy.
