Ben Healy shakes off disappointment with top-10 stage at Tirreno-Adriatico

15 Mar 2025, 19:59 by The 42 · The42

IRELAND’S BEN HEALY dug deep to finish eighth on Saturday’s penultimate stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico as Spain’s Grand Tour hope Juan Ayuso took a stranglehold on the general classification standings.

Healy, who lost considerable ground in the GC on Friday and dropped out of the top 10 overall, shook off that disappointment to finish 42 seconds behind stage winner Ayuso.

Briton Tom Pidcock was second on the race’s queen stage, 13 seconds adrift of Ayuso with Jai Hindley in third, Mikel Landa coming in for fourth and Antonio Tiberi was fifth.

Ayuso now leads Italy’s Tiberi by 37 seconds overall, with Filippo Ganna a further second back. Canada’s Derek Gee is fourth at 42 seconds with Hindley fifth at 53 seconds. Healy, who dropped from ninth to 37th on Friday, climbed back up to 24th place, 2:54 behind Ayuso.

The final run will be a sprint finish on the Adriatic coast at San Benedetto del Tronto with a single climb halfway through the 147km run.

- Storer wins penultimate stage at Paris-Nice -

Meanwhile, Michael Storer won the seventh stage of Paris-Nice on Saturday, outpacing a pursuing peloton on a steep final climb through the snow.

The 28-year-old from Perth was part of a 12-man breakaway that only splintered in the closing stages of the 109km run from Nice to Auron, where it was snowing at the 1600m altitude finish line.

The performance also lifted Storer from 13th to fourth overall with a good shot at the podium on Sunday’s final mountain run and fast descent to downtown Nice.

It was a good day for German Florian Lipowitz, who climbed to second just 37 seconds adrift of race leader and defending champion Matteo Jorgenson.