Although he was caught on the final ascent of the Côte de Camillien-Houde and ended the race eighth, Ben's Grand Prix performance bodes well for this weekend's world championship road race, which will be held on the same circuit in Montréal. Ben's coach, EF Pro Cycling technical innovation strategist Jacob Tipper, gleaned key insights from Ben's TrainingPeaks data that will inform their approach to the world championships. Ben's file from the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal is an excellent barometer for worlds.

“Worlds is normally a durability race, which is why it tends to favor certain riders so well,” Jacob said. “It will be interesting to see what the influence of the increased length with less climbing at worlds is going to be. Ben should be in a better place. He’ll be less affected by jet lag with some more good training in his legs.”

At the Grand Prix, Ben's normalized power was 334 watts over five hours and 13 minutes, with a total of one hour and 10 minutes spent above his functional threshold power over the whole day.

Sunday's world championship road race will be almost 60 kilometers longer — at 273.7 kilometers versus 214.4 kilometers at the Grand Prix — though the worlds course includes less total climbing, since it starts out in Brossard and winds through the countryside of Montérégie for 112 kilometers, before crossing the Samuel-De Champlain Bridge and racing onto the same Montréal circuit used in the Grand Prix Cycliste.

At worlds, the peloton will complete 12 laps up and around Mount Royal, with 3,803 vertical meters of climbing in total. The Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal packs 4,304 vertical meters into 16 laps. It's a more explosive, punchier effort. The extra distance at the world championships should suit Ben, whose great strength is his endurance – his ability to attack after thousands and thousands of kilojoules of work.

The good news is that Ben set personal durability records at the Grand Prix Cycliste. The race in Montréal was his best and hardest ride since the Tour de France.

After over 5,000 kilojoules of work, Ben attacked, holding 601 watts for a minute. He then did five minutes at 443 watts and 20 minutes at 338 watts. Deep in the race, he could still accelerate at his best, with a 984-watt peak.

Those are the kind of numbers that won Ben his Tour stage and Giro stage and put him on the podium at last year's world championships and at races like Amstel Gold and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

At the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, Ben was racing against most of the top favorites for this year's world championship road race. He came within a few seconds of going over the top of Camillien-Houde with the best of them when the race exploded the last time up, even though he'd been solo for most of a lap going into the climb. He hopes that balance will shift after over an hour more racing at the world championships. Most riders lose their snap as they get deeper and deeper into a race. Their peak numbers after 200 kilometers are very different from their peak numbers after 260 kilometers. When he is at his best, Ben's are much the same.

That's why he is going into worlds full of confidence. TrainingPeaks data don't lie. The Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal proved that Ben is close to his best form. He has spent the time since honing his shape in the Green Mountains of Vermont and can't wait to have another crack in Montréal.

Watch out for Ben Healy in the finale of the race for the rainbow jersey.