'We got lucky' - How EF beat the odds to keep Ben Healy

EF Education-EasyPost CEO Jonathan Vaughters has admitted that he was “lucky” to retain the services of Ben Healy, with the Irishman turning down more lucrative offers elsewhere to sign his recent contract extension with the team.

With his existing deal due to expire at the end of this year, Healy had attracted several high-profile suitors, but last month he confirmed that he would extend his stay with EF until the end of 2029.

“If I’m blunt, we got lucky with Ben Healy that he decided to stay because we were not the most financially lucrative offer that he had kicking around,” Vaughters told Domestique.

“He decided to make a loyal and emotional decision versus like a purely financial one, which is unusual in this day and age in cycling. But that’s not going to happen every time. In fact, that’s barely ever going to happen.”

Vaughters was speaking in the wake of the recent announcement that EF were willing to sell the naming rights of the men’s and women’s teams with the aim of growing the budget enough to build a Tour de France-winning team.

In the interview, which will be published in full on Domestique later this week, Vaughters outlined how the financial disparity in the WorldTour means that teams like EF are struggling both to recruit and to retain the biggest talents in the peloton, something he hoped could change with a reinforced budget.

Vaughters pointed to EF’s unsuccessful attempt to sign Isaac del Toro from the under-23 ranks as an example of the difficulty teams like his face in competing against the biggest budgets in the WorldTour. Last summer, Reuters estimated EF’s budget to be €21 million, while Tadej Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad has a rumoured budget of €65 million.

“It’s one thing finding a 16 or 17-year-old super talent, because if you’ve found him, then sure as shit you know Matxin at UAE has also found him,” Vaughters said. “It’s one thing to be the first in the market at identifying talent, but it’s another thing to be the guy who actually convinces the person to come to your team. 

“To take Isaac del Toro as an example, I fought as hard as I possibly could to get that kid. We were sort of on him very, very, very early on in the cycle. We had identified him correctly and it would have been the highest neo-pro contract I’d ever given anyone in the history of this team. But I mean, ultimately, I think our offer was less than half of what UAE’s was. So, it’s like, of course he went to UAE, man. I mean, it makes sense.”

UAE have tied a number of notable young talents to long-term contracts in recent seasons, with Vaughters maintaining that their budget allows them to take calculated risks with young riders that other teams simply cannot afford.

“With super young talents, eight times out of ten, they don’t actually turn out that great, so you’re basically throwing money at failed projects over and over and over again,” he said. “But the two that work out might be your Del Toro and your Pogačar, right? If you can afford to keep playing the odds, then eventually one’s going to turn up.”

Even so, EF’s scouting programme has had successes, most notably with Healy, who turned pro with the team in 2022 and enjoyed a break-out the following year with a stage win at the Giro d’Italia and striking displays in the Ardennes Classics. He was one of the outstanding performers of 2025, with an all-action Tour de France display and podium finishes at both Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the World Championships.

“Ben was not a super junior talent, no one really expected him to get to that level, but we have a history of getting guys to perform at a very high level that no one really expected,” Vaughters said.

“But when you do that, what’s the first thing that happens? You have an Ineos or this team or that team offering to buy them out of their contract for a bazillion dollars. I’ve experienced that back in the Sky days with Brad Wiggins, and it’s really no fun to have talent just sort of like ripped out from underneath you.”

Vaughters will hope Healy’s decision to stay is a portent of things to come.