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Having already won the GP Industria & Artigianato and a stage of Coppi e Bartali earlier this season, Ben Healy has continued to show form claiming second in last Wednesday’s Brabantse Pijl and another second place at the weekend’s Amstel Gold race.

“I was second, only to the best rider in the world at the moment, so it was a pretty good day, I think,” Ben says. “His team rode pretty hard straight from the gun. They didn’t give the break any leash, so honestly it was just trying to stay in the first 30 or 40 guys for the whole day. It was just a whittling process. And then with about 100 kilometers to go, it pressed on over a climb, and the elastic which had been going all day snapped, and I went with the group. I played the card and sat on the back, because we had Neilson behind. As we started racing, guys got dropped, and it turned out I was one of the strongest.

“I got a bit excited when I dropped Pidcock and the gap was coming back down to Pog, but he clearly had something left in the legs as well. It was a real nice feeling and little bit surreal. Second in the Amstel Gold race. Not too bad eh!”

Meanwhile, Megan Armitage was also in action this weekend at the UCI (1.1) Grand Prix Féminin de Chambéry. The race came down to a two woman sprint with Victorie Guilman beating Erica Magnaldi for the win. Armitage narrowly missed a spot on the podium, but came away from the weekend with the mountains jersey.

The weekend results also saw Darren Rafferty claim 5^th from the bunch sprint in the U23 (1.2) Liège – Bastogne – Liège. Seth Dunwoody and Patrick Casey took the top spots on General Classification at Penn Ar Bed – Pays d’Iroise (2.1). Dunwoody was first on stages one and three, also securing the youth classification win, while Casey finished just over a minute behind him on General Classification for second overall. Cal Tutty was also in action at the Penn Ar Bed – Pays d’Iroise, placing 24^th on General Classification and 9^th in the youth classification.