Everyone is waiting for the day Pogacar retires: 'I don't know if that's a good thing for Ben Healy,' says EF-boss Vaughters

What a year it has been for Ben Healy. The Irishman enjoyed a dream season, with an outstanding Classics campaign, a phenomenal Tour de France and a World Championship medal to top it off. He looks like one of the riders who could benefit if Tadej Pogacar were not around, but not everyone agrees. In fact, his own team boss strongly disagrees.

Healy finished fourth at Strade Bianche, fifth at La Flèche Wallonne and third at Liège–Bastogne–Liège. He then won stage six of the Tour de France, wore the yellow jersey for two days and ended the race ninth overall. The icing on the cake came in Rwanda, where he claimed bronze at the World Championships. Where 2023 was the year of his breakthrough, 2025 became the year of confirmation.

After finishing ninth in Paris, should EF Education–EasyPost now turn Healy into a general classification rider? Team boss Jonathan Vaughters does not want to force that path upon him. “To take that away from him and say, no, we’re going to put seven guys around you. You’re never going to touch the wind, and then you’re just going to have to go up hills really fast and go really fast in the TT; don’t know if that’s really his style of racing. But I don’t think it is honestly.” Vaughters told Domestique.

In almost all of the one-day races where Healy performed well, Tadej Pogačar ended up winning. But Vaughters does not see the Slovenian as a curse. 'Pogacar likes his team to basically like force it into a race of attrition. By the time he does that, there’s only 10 or 15 riders left, if that many. When he goes away, well, like there’s no team to chase. There’s just a bunch of individual riders that all consider them leaders themselves."

That is where Healy makes his move. In races where the world champion is not present, the Irishman actually finds it harder to win. "Where you’d see it difficult for him to continue improving is if, you know, if all of a Pogacar vanishes. You get groups of, you know, Liège-Bastogne-Liège is a group of 10 coming to the line because there’s nobody that just ripped it all to pieces. That’s trickier for Ben because he doesn’t sprint so well. He has to get away on his own in order to win in that scenario.”

That is why the American team boss believes it is better for his rider if Pogacar is simply at his best. "We’re all waiting for Pogacar to get tired or bored or retire. But I don’t know if like, that’s a good thing for Ben. I feel like for Ben, it’s better to have a strong Pogacar."

Of course, a strong Pogacar often means racing for second place - and Vaughters knows that too. Still, he sees hope for the future. "One of these days, he’s gonna like mess up his feeding a little bit or he’s gonna have a little bit of a head cold or whatever it is. I think Ben’s like well positioned to be the guy that like, even after the big surge catches him back, and then attacks in Ben Healy way."