Healy claims bronze medal at World Championships

Ben Healy won bronze in the men’s road race at the World Championships in Kigali, Rwanda, to claim Ireland’s first podium finish in the event since Sean Kelly also claimed the same medal in 1989.

The 25-year-old, who earned the Combativity award at this year’s Tour de France, continued his fine form as he moved into top-three contention by lap 10 before finishing on the podium behind gold medal winner Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia and Belgium’s silver medalist Remco Evenepoel.

On the penultimate lap, a little over 30 cyclists remained in what was a highly attritional race.

With less than 10km to go, Healy and Denmark’s Mattias Skjelmose were together behind Pogacar and Evenepoel.

With Skjelmose considered the stronger sprinter, Healy made his decisive move which ultimately paid off as he finished ahead of the Dane.

“It’s pretty special, I’ve done a lot of hard work and to stand on a podium with Remco and Tadej is pretty incredible,” Healy said.

“This season is getting crazier and crazier, from a stage win and yellow jersey at the tour and now a podium at worlds, it’s just hard to compare. Tadej is one of the greatest the sport has ever seen, Remco isn’t far behind him, so to be on the podium with them was just insane.”

Meanwhile, four-time reigning Tour de France champion Pogacar attacked with 104km remaining of the 267.5km course, going onto triumph for the second year in a row.

Pogacar is only the second rider in the last two decades to successfully defend the rainbow jersey, following Slovakia’s Peter Sagan who won three in a row from 2015 to 2017.

The Irish contingent was supplemented by Ryan Mullen, Darren Rafferty, Eddie Dunbar and Rory Townsend.

The championships were being staged in Africa for the first time.

Additional reporting: Reuters