Ireland has a new cycling hero. Ben Healy became the fourth Irish rider to earn the Tour de France’s yellow jersey Monday with a gritty ride in the fabled race’s first mountainous stage. Healy led for much of the tough 103-mile route through the Massif Central,

Stage 8 was a quiet affair for the most part but it ended with a pulsating sprint and a young rider assuming his status as one of the sport's top stars. Jonathan Milan now has 23 wins at the age of 24, 18 of them coming in a meteoric past 18 months.

Mattia Cattaneo, a key teammate of Tour de France contender Remco Evenepoel, has withdrawn from the race. The versatile Cattaneo, who rides for E

Instead, it was his Classics rival Pogacar who distanced him, with team UAE Emirates-XRG setting an infernal pace up the final slope to whittle the field down to a select group of climbers, including Remco Evenepoel, local boy Kevin Vauquelin, and Briton Oscar Onley, who ultimately finished third.

It was almost inevitable, but that doesn’t make it any less impressive: top favorite Tadej Pogacar lived up to the hype on the Mur de Bretagne with a strong win with an impressive victory in stage seven of the Tour de France.