“BH had Fuerte, they had Cubino and they had Alvaro Pino – three guys that were capable of winning. The Irishman set out his stall adequately in the 17km prologue with seventh place and then, true to Vuelta form, things got hilly only the next day. Pedro Delgado won the Vuelta in 1985. 'I was going well that year' "I was going well that year," Kelly tells us, ever the master of understatement. Four green jerseys in the Tour, multiple stage wins, multiple Monuments won multiple times, not to mention a grand tour win in the Vuelta. Sean Kelly has 159 career victories, the biggest win being Vuelta a España in 1988. John James Kelly (Carrick-on-Suir, 24 de mayo de 1956), conocido como Sean Kelly y apodado El Rey de las Clásicas, es un exciclista irlandés, profesional entre los años 1977 y 1994, durante los cuales logró 194 victorias.. Comenzó a destacar ya en las categorías inferiores, siendo dos veces campeón nacional y logrando ganar el Giro de Lombardía en categoría amateur. Win the race 7 times in a row? It didn’t take long for that to happen. Sean Kelly on Sam Bennett's Vuelta stage relegation by Tipp FM Radio published on 2020-10-30T09:46:37Z Sean Kelly gives his reaction to Sam Bennett being relegated to last place following Vuelta stage win. “I had to do it because sometimes in the mountains stages, I would lose a little bit of time here and there because my climbing, you know, that was my most difficult part as a GC contender…I’d lose a bit of time on the mountain-top finishes against the little lightweight guys.”. Colombian Luis Herrera became the first non-European winner of the Vuelta in 1987. With that group I was in that day, most of the guys would have been not that fast in the sprint. Sean Kelly en route to his first Paris-Roubaix win in 1984. More climbing for Kelly, this time up l'Alpe d'Huez in stage 16 of the 1984 Tour. I’d been there for a number years, and I had my little niche where I was the Irish guy, and he arrived along,” Kelly says. La Vuelta a Espana 2020 - 'What a final - the heavyweight punches' - Sean Kelly lauds Stage 8 finale. The inevitable did happen. Starting out his career as a sprinter, he had enjoyed a supremely successful first half of the 80s as a Classics rider, with two Paris-Roubaix, a Liège-Bastogne-Liège and a Milan-San Remo in his palmarès by the time he took the start line in Santa Cruz, Tenerife, for the 1988 Tour of Spain. But Kelly insists: “It’s a power man’s climb. The following year Éric Caritoux won the Vuelta by the smallest margin ever, he won by six seconds over Alberto Fernández. “Robert Millar give me a pretty good dig out in the final climb that day. 'Sean Kelly is the Rolls Royce of co-commentators': Q&A with Eurosport's Carlton Kirby. He might not win but he should take a podium. “I thought, look I have to make an effort here otherwise he’s going to take all the glory and the limelight.”, Sean Kelly in 1987 (Photo by Nutan/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images). While some sprinters remain sheltered in the peloton until the final few hundred metres, Kelly could instigate breaks and climb well, proving this by winning the Vuelta a España in 1988. Kelly's first professional race was the Étoile de Bessèges. Sean Kelly was victorious in 1988, and the following year Delgado won his second Vuelta. Colombian Luis Herrera became the first non-European winner of the Vuelta in 1987. Sean Kelly leads the pack in the 1983 World championships. His best results are 7x GC Paris - Nice, 16x stage Vuelta a España and 3x Giro di Lombardia. The Flandria team was in two parts: the strongest riders, such as the world champion Freddy Maertens, were in the main section, based in Belgium. Ten top-fives; six podiums and two stages. The strongest riders in both camps came together for big races. In a performance the like of which is simply no longer seen by GC riders, he was consistently up there, scoring several top-six places including two thirds and a second. But Roche’s successes that year had little bearing on Kelly at that stage, himself happy on his own trajectory, having won so many races and already regarded as a great. Of course, he would have to preserve that pouncing point through the difficult final week, and ideally take a bit more time in the process, despite his obvious ability against the clock. Kelly also looks back at some of the notable Vueltas of his own career – including the heartbreak of having to retire in 1987 within sight of victory thanks to, as he put it, “a sore bottom.” He returned the following year with unfinished business in mind and duly became the first – and to date only – Irishman ever to win the Vuelta. Looking back now, Kelly is hesitant to call the Vuelta his best ever win – after all, he does have many to choose from. In order to win both in 1986, Sean Kelly had to be an iron fist in a velvet glove. In truth, he excelled at just about everything. So for me, as stage racing goes, the Vuelta will be the most important one on my palmarès. ... going on to win LBL and the Vuelta. I was lucky with my career. But wherever the Vuelta sits in the hierarchy, Kelly, still modest to a fault, reserves the final word on the subject for his mentor. Vuelta Ciclista a la Comunidad Valenciana | Stage 4, Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco | Stage 5b (ITT), KBC Driedaagse van De Panne-Koksijde | Stage 1b (ITT), Vuelta Ciclista a la Comunidad Valenciana | Stage 7, Volta Ciclista a Catalunya | Stage 7 (ITT), Vuelta Ciclista a la Comunidad Valenciana | Stage 3, Vuelta Ciclista a la Comunidad Valenciana | Stage 1, Vuelta Ciclista a la Comunidad Valenciana | Stage 5, Volta Ciclista a Catalunya | Stage 7a (ITT), 4 Jours de Dunkerque / Tour du Nord-pas-de-Calais | Stage 2, KBC Driedaagse van De Panne-Koksijde | Stage 2, Tour Méditerranéen Cycliste Professionnel | Stage 3. Sean Kelly's 1992 Milano-Sanremo win was one of the most memorable in race history, a daring downhill attack off the Poggio. Sean Kelly (born 1956-05-24) is a road racing cyclist from Ireland, active between 1972 and 1994. Kelly was also the World number 1 for 5 years running (1984-1988). Leader Cubino cracked two days later, on the mountain-top finish to the Pyrenean ski station Estacion de Cerler. Ineos Grenadiers were “way off” expectations as a team at La Forums. Jump to. His victories in Paris-Roubaix (1984, 1986) showed his ability in poor weather and on pavé sections, while he could stay with the climbing specialists in the mountains in the Tour de France. In terms of stage wins, Sean Kelly is the most successful Irish rider in the Tour de France with five. (Slideshow route/profile) Kelly flew in from rural Ireland and took the cycling world by storm in the 80’s. “If I remember rightly, there were [bonus seconds] at the finish so that was the reason I was sprinting,” Kelly explains. During the 1980’s, Sean Kelly tussled with Adri van der Poel for the win in many of cycling’s biggest one day races. The previous year, 1987, the 30-year-old Irishman from Carrick-on-Suir had come heartbreakingly close to becoming the first Irishman to win a Grand Tour. In 1987, Ireland’s Sean Kelly came within a few days of winning the Vuelta a Espana only for an extremely painful saddle sore to force him to pull out of the race with Madrid in his sights. The following year Éric Caritoux won the Vuelta by the smallest margin ever, he won by six seconds over Alberto Fernández. A few months after that, he had to watch countryman Stephen Roche become the first Irishman to win a Grand Tour – two in fact, in the same year – when he won the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France. Sentimentality perhaps shrouds Sean Kelly’s vision when he singles out fellow Irishman Sam Bennett as the favourite for the rainbow jersey. Sean Kelly predicts some movement in the general classification in Stage 16 of La Vuelta. Pedro Delgado won the Vuelta in 1985. In 2006 he launched Ireland's first professional team , the Sean Kelly Team , composed of young Irish and Belgian riders based at the Sean Kelly Cycling Academy in Merchtem, Belgium. “To have to pull out was a huge disappointment, so 1988 was important for me,” says Kelly of his return when, he says, he definitely felt the pull of unfinished business – not to mention the intent of his Spanish team sponsor Kas. In 1988 this was all the work of one man, in one Grand Tour — the rider being Sean Kelly and the race being the Vuelta a España. That was a real problem because they were using all three to try to work me over.”. 'I was going well that year' "I was going well that year," Kelly tells us, ever the master of understatement. Win the race 7 times in a row? Sean Kelly leads the pack in the 1983 World championships. Kelly gets ready to ride the 1984 Giro di Lombardia. Wins in Paris-Nice and, a few years later, the Tour de Suisse, showed that Kelly was on the right road to Grand Tour success – backed up on the ground by slowly improving results in the three-week races. But with Kelly still hovering just 28 seconds back and going nowhere, Fuerte could only wait and hope that the inevitable didn’t happen. Kelly never rode the Giro but had started his Grand Tour career the year after he turned pro. Sean Kelly says that the decision to demote Sam Bennett on Thursday’s Stage 9 of La Vuelta was the correct one. Thread starter craig1985; Start date Jun 4, 2009; Sidebar Sidebar. Kelly rode with the second section, based more in France because Flandria wanted to sell more of its mopeds, scooters and bicycles there. May 6, 2009 8,524 1 0. “It suited me because the penultimate time trial, I knew that’s where I was going to be the stronger one and you know, as long as BH had the jersey, it took the pressure off me and my team,” Kelly says. Sean Kelly's 1988 Vuelta win. One of them would contend that he won the Vuelta. Kelly beat Fuerte by nearly two minutes to insert himself comfortably into yellow with only the final stage to Madrid left to ride. Sean Kelly's 1992 Milano-Sanremo win was one of the most memorable in race history, a daring downhill attack off the Poggio. I had a lot of achievements. Kelly gets ready to ride the 1984 Giro di Lombardia. “I was more of a sprinter,” says Kelly. Sections of this page. And in case anyone thought they might steal a little time on that last day, the Irishman took fifth place in the ensuing bunch sprint, just for good measure. David Gaudu (Groupama FDJ) won the stage as Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) clung on … “It was the perfect scenario really.”, >>> Cycling Weekly is available on your Smart phone, tablet and desktop. From that moment – ’87, ’88 – it was the most important race on my programme.”. Kelly managed to hang on, gaining 1.55 on the Spaniard, which he attributes in no small part to a fellow Anglophone rider. Case in point – on stage 11, to the Riojan ski resort of Valdezcaray, Kelly won, leading in a small group including leader Cubino, former Vuelta champion Alvaro Pino and twice Tour de France KOM Luis Herrera, of Colombia.