'It had to be done' - Ben Healy's parents take whistlestop Tour de France trip to see historic yellow jersey ride

In the past week they have watched their son Ben become the Black Country’s first-ever stage winner in the Tour de France and then, even more extraordinarily, become the region’s first-ever leader of the world’s most famous bike race.

The 24-year-old, who claimed the iconic yellow jersey with Monday’s heroic ride through the mountains of the Massif Central, will wear it for the first time on the road during Wednesday’s 98-mile 11th stage around Toulouse. 

Both Bryan and Lisa will be there to see it, swapping their usual viewpoint in the Wordsley family home for the heat, noise and all-round pandemonium of the Tour.

“It had to be done, didn’t it?” laughs Bryan, speaking while travelling to Bristol Airport to catch a flight late on Tuesday. 

“I had messages from people on Monday after Ben had taken yellow, asking if I was going over to watch and I said no, I had to work.

“But then we went to the Bird in Hand pub in Wordsley that night to celebrate and my mate Barry, who had been checking flights on his phone said: ‘You do realise you can fly to Toulouse and back in a day?’.

“I saw Lisa’s ears prick up and from that point it was a case of seeing if my boss could afford to let me have Wednesday off and she said: ‘Go for it’.

“So we head out on Tuesday and back Wednesday night. It’s a bit mad but as another of my friends said, it is not often you get to make this kind of trip.”

“Insane” is the word Bryan uses to describe the emotions of the past few days and there is a sense time will be required before the scale of Ben’s achievement properly sinks in.

On Monday night, after snatching the lead from three-time Tour winner Tadej Pogacar, the same applied to the rider himself.

“Ben phoned us when we were in the pub,” says Bryan. “He was beaming from ear-to-ear but I still think he was caught in that mixture of exhaustion and disbelief.

“He said in one of his interviews he was too tired to feel any emotion and I think he was still in that zone. He was so caught up in it.”

Bryan and Lisa were both in France to watch the opening stages of the Tour earlier in the month before returning to the UK.

They then watched in delight as Ben powered away to win last Thursday’s stage to Vire Normandie, before hitting even greater heights four days later.

“I worked both days and had the cycling on in the background, before watching the last two hours of both stages,” says Bryan. “On Thursday I was able to go back do some more work afterward. On Monday? No chance.”

Jacob Tipper, Healy’s coach since the age of 16 and a fellow former member of Halesowen Cycling Club, has also been watching events unfold from his home in Kingswinford.

“It has been incredibly nerve-wracking,” he says. “It’s been interesting, working at such a high level but watching it from home. It makes it more stressful. There has been a lot of blood pressure build-up.”

Monday’s stage, which fell on Bastille Day and - as Tipper noted when Healy’s EF Cycling team were first assessing the route last December - also Black Country Day, was long considered a possible target.

But that was before Healy’s exertions in winning in Normandy just days earlier, making the fact he was able to dig deep yet again even more remarkable.

“Cycling is very much a lot of long shots and the Tour de France is something else,” says Tipper. “Every day is raced like a world championship, a career-defining race. It’s always possible but to actually deliver on it is crazy.”

He continued: “A lot of people probably won’t appreciate just how insane Ben’s achievement is. 

“Cycling is one of the world’s most truly global sports and the Tour de France one of the most watched sporting events in the world. 

“The yellow jersey is one of the most iconic sporting uniforms in the world. It is the one thing about cycling everyone knows. To be wearing it is pretty unbelievable.”

Healy will be expected to lose yellow when the race moves into the Pyrenees on Thursday, when the battle between Pogacar and his main rival for overall victory, Jonas Vingegaard, will again come to the fore.

But having already upset the odds not once but twice, it would be a brave soul who bet against the boy from Wordsley springing another shock.

“He’s very likely to lose it on Thursday. But then again, he keeps surprising us, doesn’t he?” says Bryan.

“But he’s got a stage win, he’s got a yellow jersey. What more does he need to prove? Anything else now is a bonus.”