In the 38 years since Stephen Roche first rode his bike up to the ski resort at La Plagne in the 1987 Tour de France nothing about its brutal gradient or length has changed.
“No, it hasn’t got any easier, or shorter,” says Roche, who rode up La Plagne again last Friday as part of the Cure Leukaemia charity cycle, which has been covering all of this year’s Tour stages a week in advance.
“Still 19km, not much shelter on it either, and a fast road. The Tour stages these days are a bit shorter, it was only 129km, but still a lot of climbing, standing on the pedals.”
It was the pivotal summit finish in Roche’s outright Tour victory in 1987, the 185km Stage 21 from Le Bourg d’Oisans to La Plagne, remembered in part for Phil Liggett’s legendary race commentary on Channel 4:
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“Again, Pedro Delgado has slipped Stephen Roche on the climb. But remember, at one point he had a minute and a half, and just who is that rider coming up behind ... because that looks like Roche! That looks like Stephen Roche, it’s Stephen Roche that has come over the line. He almost caught Pedro Delgado, I don’t believe it. Surely ... Stephen Roche is now going to win this Tour de France.”
Whether this Friday’s Stage 19 to La Plagne, the last big mountain finish, proves equally pivotal remains to be seen, but the 2025 Tour will already be remembered for the exploits of Ben Healy. After winning Stage 6 with a 42km solo breakaway in Vire Normandie, Healy became the first Irish rider since Roche in 1987 to take the leader’s yellow jersey after Stage 10, wearing it for two days on Stage 11 and 12.
Roche has been watching Healy’s career closely over the last number of years, reckoning he might need to rein in his attacking style a little, especially in the Tour.
“I don’t know Ben very well, but he’s a great guy. I met him last year at the World Championships in Zurich. A few of them were having a few drinks in a bar after the race. I was congratulating him on his season and just chatting like that. I told him maybe refrain a little, rather than attacking 25 times, attack maybe five times.
“He was saying ‘that’s the way I am, I do things differently’, and I just told him your career goes very quickly, you don’t want to be known as a very aggressive rider but (who) hasn’t got a palmarès (list of wins). It’s about winning races, that’s what you leave behind.
“I wasn’t advising him, we were just shooting the breeze, but then when I saw him winning his first Tour stage, and majestically winning it, it was a brilliant ride.
“Being in the group from a long way out, attacking with 40km to go, you need some balls to do that. Tadej Pogačar can do it, but very few actually do it and maintain it. I was a little worried he might keel over on the final climb, but no, Ben just kept going, putting more time on the two guys behind him.”
After taking over the yellow jersey in Puy de Sancy, Healy became only the fourth Irish rider to wear the famed maillot jaune. Roche wore it for three days in 1987, as did Shay Elliott in 1963, while Seán Kelly wore it for one day in 1983.
“It was the way he managed that stage,” says Roche of Healy’s Stage 10 effort. “He rode so aggressively from the front, knew the yellow jersey was there and he was prepared to dig in and go for it, whatever the result was. Again, very few riders can do that, especially in today’s cycling.”
Healy lost the yellow jersey on the first big day of climbs in the Hautes-Pyrénées, coming in 13 minutes and 38 seconds behind Pogačar despite the best efforts of his team EF Education-EasyPost. Wearing the yellow jersey for even a single day can take an extra toll on the rider, although Roche doesn’t believe that necessarily got to Healy.
“Ben is also a very laid-back guy. I was a bit different, and I think in our day there was a lot more stress after winning a stage, or winning a yellow jersey.
“Riders these days are more micromanaged, they have their own press officer looking after them, so I wouldn’t say wearing the yellow jersey took that much out of him.
“But Healy hasn’t come out of nowhere, this is the fruit of his hard work and dedication. He must also believe in himself now, after the performances he’s put in the last few years, in the Tour and the Classics.”
Healy displayed all his belief again in Tuesday’s stage to Mont Ventoux, falling just a bike-length short of another place in Tour history, crossing the line second behind Frenchman Valentin Paret-Peintre.
“I thought he was unlucky,” says Roche. “Tactically, maybe he didn’t play it right. It’s easy to say that in hindsight, but if I was Ben, after winning a stage and wearing the yellow jersey, I wouldn’t have been so aggressive. I’d have sat back and told the others ‘if you want to win this stage, you ride for it’. I’d have a bluffed a little bit too,” says Roche.
“He definitely deserved to win, and until the last 50m he had won it. But you could see Paret-Peintre had some extra motivation, to be the first French stage winner on this Tour.”
For Roche, there’s no doubt the 24-year-old Healy is still approaching his prime. Roche rode the Tour 10 times, finishing third in 1985 (aged 25), winning in 1987 aged 27, then winning another stage in 1992 (aged 32).
“He can definitely get better in time trialling with a bit more coaching. Climbing, we’ve seen he’s not far off the mark. Generally, there’s still a bit of progression to be made. So the sky is the limit, and if I were him, I’d keep dreaming big.
“I think he definitely has what it takes to target the podium anyway. You’ve got to target the yellow jersey, of course, but he can definitely target the podium.
“Until now, some people were saying ‘Ben who? Oh the Irish guy?’ But after this Tour, Ben Healy is a household name in cycling, all the peloton know what Ben is capable of, so you won’t get as much rope as you got before. Once you start knocking on the door, doing these kind of performances, you become a marked man.
“But I don’t think that will bother Ben. He shoots from the hip, really. Sometimes that comes with a cost as well, but the Tour is a special case, it’s a different monster. You really do need to have special qualities to get up there like Healy has.”
