Sean James Kelly

Born 21st May 1956

Professional Cyclist from 1977 - 1994

Professional Teams

Flandria 1977-78

Splendor 1979-81

Sem France Loire 1982-83

Skil Sem 1984-85

Kas 1986-88

PDM Concorde 1989-91

Festina Lotus 1992-93

Catavana 1994

Watch "THE SEAN KELLY STORY"

Information courtesy of Wikipedia

Kelly grew up in the townland of Curraghduff, County Waterford on the Tipperary border near Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary, Ireland. From the start of his professional career in 1977 when he was discovered by the French directeur sportif Jean de Gribaldy, until his retirement in 1994, Kelly won nine 'Monument' Classics, and 193 professional races in total, a tally only bettered by Eddy Merckx. Kelly also won the Paris-Nice stage race seven years in a row, and won the inaugural UCI Road World Cup in 1989.

He has a Grand Tour victory to his credit in the 1988 Vuelta a España, and multiple wins in the Giro di Lombardia, Milan-SanRemo, Paris-Roubaix and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Other victories include the Critérium International, Grand Prix des Nations and many smaller tours, including the Tour de Suisse, Vuelta al País Vasco and Volta a Catalunya.

Notably missing from his list of victories is the World Cycling Championship rainbow jersey, which he almost won in a close battle against Greg LeMond in 1989. When the FICP Road World Rankings were first introduced in March 1984, Kelly was the first rider to be ranked world No.1, a position he held for over six years, which is the competition record. Kelly was known to be one of the hard men of professional cycling, achieving 33 victories in one season (1984).   

While some sprinters prefer to remain sheltered in the peloton until the final few hundred metres of a race, Kelly was capable of instigating breaks and could climb well, proving this by winning the Vuelta a España in 1988. His victories in Paris-Roubaix (1984, 1986) showed his ability to battle against poor weather and terrible road conditions, while in the Tour de France he could stay with the climbing specialists in the mountains. He finished fourth in the Tour in 1985 and won the Maillot vert (Green Jersey) in 1982, 1983, 1985, and 1989, becoming the first rider to win the Tour's points classification four times, a feat he repeated in the Vuelta a España. Kelly won 21 stages in Grand Tours, five in the Tour de France and 16 in the Vuelta a España.

 Early professional career

Kelly had a strong amateur career in Ireland being the Junior Champion of Ireland in 1972 and 1973 as well as winning the Shay Elliot Memorial race in 1974 and 1975 and stage wins in the Tour of Ireland of 1975. In order to prepare for the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games, he and fellow Irish team competitor Pat McQuaid went to South Africa to compete a stage-race there even though there was a sporting boycott on in this country at that time. Kelly and McQuaid were caught and were then banned from competing in the Olympic Games. As a result, Kelly spent the summer of 1976 as an amateur in France and went on to win the Amateur Giro di Lombardia. It was at this time that he was spotted by French directeur sportif Jean de Gribaldy who came to Ireland to offer him a contract to ride for the Belgian Flandria professional team. Kelly would stay with de Gribaldy for the 1977 and 1978 seasons which included a stage win in his first Tour de France. Kelly changed team in 1979 and it was not until 1982 that he would be rejoined with Jean de Gribaldy in the Sem-France Loire team. During this time Kelly had a reputation as a sprinter who could not win stage races, although he did perform well in stage races such as finishing fourth overall in the 1980 Vuelta a España. Having been reunited with de Gribaldy in 1982, Kelly won Paris-Nice and the Maillot vert (i.e., the green sprinter’s jersey) of the Tour de France. He finished third in the UCI Road World Championships. In a tribute to Kelly's achievements in the 1982 Tour de France and his bronze medal at the World Championships Kelly's home town, Carrick on Suir, named the town square "the Sean Kelly Square." The following year Kelly defended his Paris-Nice win before building on his stage race achievements by winning the Criterium International and the Tour de Suisse as well as winning the Maillot vert of the Tour de France for a second time in a row.

 Height of professional career

In the autumn of 1983 that Kelly finally broke through with a win in one of cycling’s monuments to confirm the potential he had. After a tough battle over the Intelvi and Schignano passes, a leading group of 18 riders entered the streets of Como to battle for victory in the Giro di Lombardia. Against some of the greatest cyclists of the 1980s, including Francesco Moser, Adri Van Der Poel, Hennie Kuiper and reigning world champion Greg LeMond, Kelly won the sprint by the narrowest of margins, with less than half a wheel separating the first four. 

Kelly dominated the sport the following spring earning the nickname ‘the new cannibal.’ He won Paris-Nice for the third successive time beating fellow Irishman Stephen Roche as well as the then four time Tour de France winner Frenchman Bernard Hinault who was returning to form after a knee injury. Kelly finished second in Milan-SanRemo and the Ronde van Vlaanderen, but was unbeatable in Paris-Roubaix and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. On the paper following his Paris-Roubaix triumph, the French daily sports newspaper l’Equipe had a picture of Kelly cycling over the cobbles with mud on his face and the heading Insatiable Kelly! referring to his appetite for winning that spring. In the Critérium International, he won all three stages: after winning the bunch sprint on stage 1, he took a solo victory in the mountain stage, and beat compatriot Stephen Roche in the final individual time trial. In total Kelly achieved 33 victories in 1984. He was becoming an emerging contender in the Grand Tours as could be seen by him finishing fifth overall in the Tour de France. This may have caused him to lose his grip on the Maillot vert in that year’s Tour. Kelly was wearing the maillot vert as the Tour was finishing on the Champs-Élysées but lost it in the final bunch finish to Belgian Frank Hoste who finished ahead of Kelly on the stage gaining valuable points to take the jersey off Kelly’s shoulders.

In 1985, he won Paris-Nice again beating Stephen Roche. In the 1985 Tour de France he won the Maillot vert for the third time and finished fourth in the General Classification. Kelly won the first edition of the Nissan International Classic tour of Ireland beating Adri Van Der Poel. At the end of the season, he won the Giro di Lombardia. In 1986 he won Milan-Sanremo after winning Paris-Nice, he finished second in the Ronde van Vlaanderen and won Paris-Roubaix again. He finished for the first time on a podium in a Grand Tour when he finished third overall in the 1986 Vuelta a España. He returned to Ireland and won the Nissan Classic again. His second win in the Nissan Classic came after a duel with Canadian Steve Bauer who took the yellow jersey after Kelly crashed numerous times. Kelly went into the final stage 3 seconds behind Bauer on the general classification and took the jersey when he finished third on the stage and won bonus seconds.

In 1987 Kelly won Paris-Nice on the very last day after Roche who was wearing the Leader’s jersey got a puncture in the finale of the stage and fell many places down the general classification. Later while leading the Vuelta a España with three days to go, he was forced to retire due to an infection. It was a bitter disappointment for him, and his bad luck continued in the Tour de France, having to retire after a crash tore ligaments in his shoulder. After the UCI Road World Championships in which he finished fifth behind Roche, Kelly returned to win his home tour, the Nissan Classic, for the third consecutive time with Roche finishing second. 

In 1988 Kelly returned in the spring to win his seventh Paris-Nice (a record). Several weeks later he won Gent-Wevelgem. In April he returned to the 1988 Vuelta a España. During the first two weeks of the race, Kelly had stayed two minutes behind race leader Spaniard Laudelino Cubino but on stage 13 which was won by Colombian Fabio Parra, Kelly finished fourth on the stage behind Parra and Anselmo Fuerte. Kelly managed to cut over one minute and a half into Cubino’s lead. From this stage, Anselmo Fuerte had moved himself into second overall and later took the jersey from Cubino on the sixteenth stage. But Kelly maintained the tight gap between himself and Fuerte and started the final Individual time trial of the second last day 21 seconds behind the leaders jersey. Kelly rode himself to the stage win and closed the gap to take the leaders Amarillo jersey from Fuerte. The following day Kelly would win his only grand tour over West German Raimund Dietzen. He also won the Points competition. After his Vuelta win Kelly returned home to Carrick an Suir where there was a parade held in his honour.

In the Tour de France of that year Kelly finished in 46th position just over an hour behind Spaniard Pedro Delgado. After this Kelly was no longer a contender for the overall victory in Grand Tours and even admitted that he’d never win the Tour de France. In the Nissan Classic of that year, Kelly finished third behind German Rolf Gölz.

At the rainy world road championships of 1989 at Chambéry France, Kelly finished third in the final sprint behind Dimitri Konyshev and Greg Lemond. Lemond won his second rainbow jersey as world road race champion that day. 

Kelly then switched teams to the Dutch PDM team with whom he stayed with for three years until the end of 1991. The following year he won Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Green Jersey in the Tour de France, and the inaugural UCI Road World Cup championship. In 1990 Kelly won the Tour de Suisse. In 1991, Kelly had a tough year with a broken collarbone in March, then he had to pull out of the 1991 Tour de France and then while Seán was competing the Tour of Galicia in August, his brother Joe was tragically killed in a bicycle race near Carrick-on-Suir. He came back to win his fourth Nissan Classic by only four seconds over Sean Yates and then went to and won the classic at the end of the season, the Giro di Lombardia.

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