LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT - SEAN KELLY

Celebrating King Kelly’s career and continued work in cycling

Cycling Weekly -- December 5, 2019

With 160 career victories across a variety of Grand Tours, Monuments and one-week stage races, the decision to give Cycling Weekly’s Lifetime Achievement award to Sean Kelly was fairly easy.

When Cycling Weekly asks the ever humble Kelly what the highlight is from a long and illustrious career his response that there are a ‘number of highlights’ is an understatement. But a few races stand out more than most:

“I think when I won my first Paris-Roubaix that is probably the one I cherish most. I remember quite a lot of it too. I was in excellent shape and I remember during the race when the peloton was getting smaller and smaller I wanted to attack with about 60 kilometres from the finish. I spoke to my DS Jean de Gribaldy and he said, ‘Are you crazy? You are totally mad to do that, just follow the field and other favourites and stay in the front and wait.’”

Having waited for another 15 kilometres and asked three more times to attack, Kelly was finally unleashed. “I went with 40 kilometres to go, with the group of about 30 riders and after the sector I saw just a sole rider coming and I couldn’t see the rest of the favourites.”

That rider was Rudy Rogiers, and they clawed back early escapees Alain Bondue and Gregor Braun. Despite the odds suggesting they would both be seen again regardless, Kelly wanted the race to be run on his terms, a trait that epitomises his career.

Aside from the multiple Monument victories that Kelly proudly looks back upon, his incredible run of seven Paris-Nice titles is an extremely rare achievement for a single rider in a single race across the sport. By the end of the run the wins had a magnetic quality to the man from Waterford; they just came to him of their own accord. 

“When you win the first one you want to win a second to prove it wasn’t a flash in the pan. Then when I got to my third one I started thinking maybe I should change and try to get in better shape for other targets. So I delayed my training a bit but I always seemed to come into form during the race and just went on and on.”

After a fifth title in a row, Kelly admits he maybe didn’t need to win any more but the racing instinct that paved the way to all-round success in the sport kept placing him in the perfect positions during the Race to the Sun.

Right place, right time

“I kept finding myself in the right moves and sometimes I fell into them, stayed up there and managed to become the leader or just be in contention on the final TT up Col d’Eze,” Kelly reveals. “As every day went past I seemed to get better and better, finishing strong and for that reason I kept winning for a sixth and seventh time. Eventually I changed teams and didn’t go back, which was probably a good thing in hindsight.”

Kelly admits he never fully prioritised a tilt at the overall victory at the Tour de France — despite developing the traits to do so. “All the work I put in to win the Tour helped to win the Vuelta, which was important for a Spanish team, but that took quite a lot of working because I had to work on my climbing as there were always the big climbs in three week races. So I got the weight down slowly over the years and was able to hold up pretty well in the mountains and then win it in the TT further into the race,” he recalls.

Since stepping off the bike in the early 1990s, Kelly has continued his influence within the sport as manager of the An Post-Chain Reaction squad, which over its 11 seasons helped develop a selection of WorldTour pros, and has become a constant presence and voice in Eurosport’s coverage of WorldTour events, even if he may have to hold his tongue at stages. 

“Sometimes you think of something to say and you can’t actually say it,” he says. “Whereas if you are out there on the bike or DS in the car that language comes straight out when someone is doing something stupid. So you have to hold your tongue sometimes in TV commentary.”

Watching the racing regularly allows Kelly to keep track of the names of the new riders that are coming into the sport; even if he has gained a cult status for his Irish pronunciations and use of rider and team nicknames that have become synonymous with his style.

Academy award

Kelly hasn’t just become a fountain of knowledge for fans of the sport as he has played a key role in the development of riders such as Sam Bennett and Ryan Mullen among others. The creation of the Sean Kelly Academy, which evolved into the formation of the Continental team that would become An Post-Chain Reaction has been a well-trodden path for many pros who may not have reached the top of the sport without that support.

He says: “It was good working with young guys who had the talent and we tried to develop them and move them to “You have to hold your tongue sometimes during TV commentary” a level where they could go on to bigger things. Sam Bennett was one of these riders who beat injury and illness through the support of the team to reach the very top of the sport.

“When you see inside the team, you can see how much work went into that and from the personal side from the DS and everyone around the team. He had some difficult times so for him to get over all those problems and go on in the last couple of years to become one of the fastest men in the world is great to see.”

Kelly’s career on the bike may be long gone, but his hands-on assistance to the next generation is evident as they attempt to emulate this legend of the sport.

A CAREER IN NUMBERS

1 Grand Tour victory - 1988 Vuelta a España 

4 Tour de France green jerseys - 1982, 1983, 1985, 1989

9 Monument wins - 1986 & 1992 Milan-San Remo, 1984 & 1986 Paris-Roubaix, 1984 & 1989 Liège-Bastogne-Liège, 1983, 1985 & 1991 Il Lombardia