Ireland's Ben Healy relishing the yellow jersey in 'fairy tale' Tour de France campaign, as racing gets back underway for Stage 11 in Toulouse

Ben Healy will be riding in yellow for Stage 11 of the 2025 Tour de France, which gets underway on TNT Sports and discovery+ on Wednesday following the first rest day of the race. "It's a fairy tale," said the Irishman, who also registered a stage win on day 6. Overall favourite Tadej Pogacar is hot on his heels though, as the defending champion looks to retain the maillot jaune.

The first rest day of the Tour de France is a welcome reprieve for those taking on the gruelling 3,338 kilometre race, but for the rider in yellow it’s a real moment to relish.

Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) was able to savour that occasion on Tuesday in one of two pauses from the saddle over 23 days.

The Irishman overtook Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) in the general classification on Bastille Day on Monday, as reigning Giro d’Italia champion Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) claimed victory on Stage 10.

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"It’s a fairytale," said Healy, who heads into Stage 11 on Wednesday with a 29-second lead over defending champion Pogacar.

"If you’d told me this before the Tour I wouldn’t have believed you. A stage win and yellow jersey is just incredible and beyond belief really.

"Got to respect the jersey and I’m in quite a nice position now to just try and hold on for as long as possible.

"I think it’s just about settling it in. My social media is blowing up, there are fans in the car park. I couldn’t even get a coffee this morning. 

"I think I’m really starting to appreciate just the size of all of this. I’m just living the dream."

The moment Healy realised he had snatched yellow jersey from Pogacar

Video credit: TNT Sports

Despite Healy’s heroics, Pogacar remains the overall favourite to take this year’s title and defend his crown.

He currently holds a strong advantage over his two most likely rivals for the yellow jersey, leading Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) by 1'00" and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) by 1'17".

Healy poses a more immediate challenge, but three-time winner Pogacar remains confident in his, and his team’s ability, to reclaim the maillot jaune.

"We will see if Ben can hold onto the yellow jersey for a couple of stages, but I think that he has spent a lot of time in the breakaway already," he said, mounting pressure on the Irishman.

"So I hope he feels tired and that we can fight again for a day in yellow in the next coming stages. Maybe not tomorrow, but Hautacam and then the time trial and Superbagneres. It’s going to be three really nice climbing days.

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"I expect it’s going to be a really fast week in terms of how fast it will end, because we extended the first week for one day and now the second week is one day shorter, and also one time trial in the middle, so everything will go super quick and I think this week can be already quite decisive.

"Normally the second week is always reserved a bit for semi-mountains and breakaways and maybe one big mountain day, but this year, this week is almost as hard as the final week, so we can already see some big gaps in the GC in the upcoming days."

'Visma weren't attacking to keep Pogacar in yellow', insists Vingegaard

Video credit: TNT Sports

Stage 11 gets underway at 12:45pm UK time on Wednesday, 16 July, live on TNT Sports and discovery+.

Attention then turns to the first major summit finish — a race to Hautacam on Thursday for Stage 12.

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