Highlights of Sean Kelly's Career
Mr A.W. Powers
To continue this theme of the highlights of the careers of riders who have
retired recently I'd like to mention a few of my favourites from the career
of one of the all-time greats, Sean Kelly, who retired this year.
Kelly was unquestionably the finest one-day rider of his generation winning,
by my calculations, 12 classics in his career. He was a true all-rounder, as
capable of winning Liege-Bastogne-Leige and the Tour of Lombardy as he was
of winning Paris-Roubaix.
Kelly was a fine tour rider too. He won Paris-Nice for 7 consecutive
years from 1983. He was overall winner of the Tour of Spain in 1988 and
surely would have won in 1987 when he was forced to retire two days from
the end because of a back injury whilst leading the race. In the Tour de
France Kelly won a record 4 Green jerseys in 1982, 1983, 1985 and 1989. He
wasn't quite good enough in the high mountains to win the race - his best
placing was 4th in 1984.
I think Kelly's finest year was 1984. That year he had one of the most
impressive winning streaks of any rider in the history of the sport. He
won Paris-Nice at the beginning of March and between then and the end of
April he was virtually unbeatable. In Milan-San Remo he finished second
after Moser escaped on the descent of the Poggio. He then travelled to
the South of France where he won all 3 stages and the overall of the
Criterium International. In the Tour of Flanders Kelly was undoubtedly
the strongest rider in the race but in the race-winning break of 5 he
was up against 2 Panasonic riders and 2 Flandria riders. Lammerts escaped
and Kelly won the sprint for second.
Kelly then travelled south to Spain for the Tour du Pays Basque where he won
3 stages and the overall before returning to France for Paris-Roubaix.
On the morning of Paris-Roubaix L'Equipe wrote that if Kelly wanted to be
remembered as a great rider then he had to win. All through the race Kelly
was impatient, waiting for his moment to attack. When it came he split the
lead group to pieces, with only the Belgian rider Rudy Rogiers managing to
stay in contact. Kelly later admitted he waited for Rogiers as he didn't
want him organising a chase group behind him. In the sprint in the velodrome
at Roubaix Kelly won the sprint with ease. This victory is the one he
cherishes the most.
A week later in Liege-Bastogne-Liege Kelly won again. In four weeks he had
won two of the five monuments of the sport and finished second in two more.
As he had won the Tour of Lombardy at the end of the previous year Kelly
held a record that not even Merckx in his prime could equal. The rest of
the year was equally as successful - fourth overall in the Tour and victory
in Blois-Chaville, the name for Paris-Tours as run in the mid-eighties.
Kelly's greatest disappointments were the fact that he never won two of the
biggest one-day races in the sport - the Tour of Flanders and the World
Championships. He was second in the Tour of Flanders 3 times and knows he
should have won in both 1984 and 1986. In the Worlds Kelly finished third
twice in 1982 at Goodwood and in 1989 at Chambery. This would prove to be
the greatest disappointment of his career - on the morning of the race Kelly
had decided against fitting a 12-tooth sprocket as he thought the course was
to severe to end in a sprint. At the end he was in a group of five - Lemond,
Konyshev, Fignon and Rooks being the others - and Lemond led out the sprint
perfectly for Kelly. But when he came to go round him he didn't quite have
the speed to make it and Lemond and Konyshev just beat him. Kelly doesn't
know if he would have won with the 12 sprocket but it is the element of
doubt that rankles with him to this day.
Of all Kelly's triumphs my two favourites are his last two classic wins -
the Tour of Lombardy in 1991 and Milan-San Remo in 1992. At the start of
the 1991 Lombardy race no-one had mentioned Kelly as a possible winner
despite the fact that he had recently won the Nissan Classic in his
native Ireland. But on the Lissolo climb it was Kelly who attacked the
front group, took Martial Gayant with him and then held off the pursuing
Ballerini and Sorensen to win. A fine ride from an "old" man.
In 1992 there is no doubt that Moreno Argentin - surely Kelly's closest rival
as a one day rider par excellence - was the strongest rider in Milan-San
Remo. Argentin attacked over the top of the Poggio and led by 10 seconds
as the riders started the descent. But behind Kelly clipped off the front of
the pursuing group and threw caution to the wind as he descended like a
madman. At the 1km to go banner Kelly caught Argentin and then defeated
him in the sprint. Afterwards he acknowledged that Argentin was the
strongest but added that he was the wisest. A great moment.
To me Kelly was a great rider - he won most of the biggest races the sport
has to offer - yet he remained a modest and affable man. He knew his success
was due to a combination of talent and hard work and would never claim it
came from anything else.
Andy
MikeLatsch
("Mr A.W. Powers") writes:
i have to agree with all parts of your bio on kelly. i'm about 1/2 way
thru his biography (which unfortunately only covers til '86). i was really
impressed by his accomplishments and his character. what has he been doing
lately? is he involved in coaching a team, or is he going back to being a
bricklayer?
Mike