# Sean Kelly ?



## Wester (8 May 2017)

Sean Kelly was ranked as the No1 cyclist in the world for a number of years yet he never won or to the best of my knowledge never came close to winning the world's No1 race the Tour De France why did he never win the De Tour ?


----------



## Phaeton (8 May 2017)

Wester said:


> Sean Kelly was ranked as the No1 cyclist in the world for a number of years yet he never won or to the best of my knowledge never came close to winning the world's No1 race the Tour De France why did he never win the De Tour ?


Because somebody always completed it in a quicker time on each occasion he competed in it


----------



## S-Express (8 May 2017)

Wester said:


> Sean Kelly was ranked as the No1 cyclist in the world for a number of years yet he never won or to the best of my knowledge never came close to winning the world's No1 race the Tour De France why did he never win the De Tour ?



Because being No1 is not dependent on winning a grand tour.


----------



## Adam4868 (8 May 2017)

Sean Kelly never won the tour De France because he rode everything else ! He was full on classics then grand tours.He won quite a few stages though.id guess you'd have him down as more of a sprinter.


----------



## jarlrmai (8 May 2017)

Wester said:


> Sean Kelly was ranked as the No1 cyclist in the world for a number of years yet he never won or to the best of my knowledge never came close to winning the world's No1 race the Tour De France why did he never win the De Tour ?



Cycling doesn't work that way, a lot of people would argue Peter Sagan is the current individual greatest cyclist, but there's no way he's going to win the Tour de France, GT's like the TDF are a generally team event built around a climbing specialist with all round ability and a lot of strong domestiques.


----------



## Adam4868 (8 May 2017)

Four green jerseys in the Tour, multiple stage wins, multiple Monuments won multiple times, not to mention a grand tour win in the Vuelta. Kelly was also the World number 1 for 5 years running (1984-1988).

The only races to really escape him were the Tour of Flanders, where he was 2nd on 3 occasions, and the Tour de France, where his highest overall position was 4th in 1985
Pretty impressive to say the least,I think I remember reading the only time he found he suffered was in the high mountains


----------



## mjr (8 May 2017)

Seems like he didn't enjoy the Alps and rarely had a strong time trial team, both of which are important for the Tour de France:

In 1982 he lost time in the time trials and seemed to relax in the last few mountains; 1983 he took yellow on the stage into Pau and then lost 6 minutes the next day, clawing back time in the next ITT and then losing big in the Alps and a little more in the last ITT; 1984 he lost time early on and never recovered it like Fignon and others did; 1985 he lost nearly 3min in the team time trial, recovered some in northern France, lost more to Hinault in the ITT and Alps, recovered a bit in the Pyrenees, then lost more in the last ITT; 1986 he was injured after the Tour de Suisse; 1987 retired from race after a crash; 1988 he lost time in the Alps again and didn't recover enough AFAICT; 1989 he lost time in the team time trial and a bit more in the Pyrenees, then again in the Alps; 1990 lost time in the team time trial and dropped out of the top ten in the Alps never to return; 1991 entire PDM team retired "sick" (now there's an interesting story if you want to search...); 1992 lost 5 minutes on the second stage; 1993 Festina seem to have preferred van Poppel to him as their green jersey hope; 1994 his new team was not invited; then he retired.


----------



## BalkanExpress (8 May 2017)

Adam4868 said:


> Kelly was also the World number 1 for 5 years running (1984-1988).



And was followed as number 1 by Charly Mottet. I think this tells us that the ranking system at the time favoured consistency over winning grand tours.


----------



## Ian H (8 May 2017)

Kelly was one of the hardest of hard riders, and also a really nice guy—he'd be stood at the barriers chatting and signing autographs after all the other riders had retired to their hotels.


----------



## mjr (8 May 2017)

BalkanExpress said:


> And was followed as number 1 by Charly Mottet. I think this tells us that the ranking system at the time favoured consistency over winning grand tours.


Does anyone know/remember how it was weighted? I've read it included all UCI-sanctioned races.


----------



## User33236 (8 May 2017)

It's a good job he was a great cyclist as he's as monotonous and boring as heck as a commentator!


----------



## S-Express (8 May 2017)

BalkanExpress said:


> I think this tells us that the ranking system at the time favoured consistency over winning grand tours.



The ranking system favours riders with the most UCI points. Simple as that.


----------



## Adam4868 (8 May 2017)

Have to disagree,love him as a commentator.Was lucky enough to meet him in Dublin at the giro few years ago,lovely fella Had a drink even though he was running late to do commentary !


----------



## User33236 (8 May 2017)

Adam4868 said:


> Have to disagree,love him as a commentator.


I believe he is a bit like Marmite in that respect.


----------



## themosquitoking (8 May 2017)

User33236 said:


> I believe he is a bit like Marmite in that respect.


I quite like Sean Kelly as a commentator but if you come near me with Marmite that spready knife you have will be used for much darker things.


----------



## Flick of the Elbow (9 May 2017)

Wester said:


> Sean Kelly was ranked as the No1 cyclist in the world for a number of years yet he never won or to the best of my knowledge never came close to winning the world's No1 race the Tour De France why did he never win the De Tour ?



And this notion that the Tour is the World's No1 race is seriously misguided too. Yes it's probably the No1 Grand Tour but there's no way it ranks above the Spring Classics season.


----------



## smutchin (9 May 2017)

User33236 said:


> I believe he is a bit like Marmite in that respect.



Yeah, Sean Kelly is great on toast. Although Marmite is a bit rubbish at cycling commentary - no tactical awareness whatsoever.


----------



## smutchin (9 May 2017)

jarlrmai said:


> Cycling doesn't work that way, a lot of people would argue Peter Sagan is the current individual greatest cyclist, but there's no way he's going to win the Tour de France



I've always thought there are a lot of similarities between Kelly and Sagan, and I think it is possible that Sagan could emulate Kelly by winning a Grand Tour later in his career. He'll need to work on his climbing though.


----------



## themosquitoking (9 May 2017)

smutchin said:


> I've always thought there are a lot of similarities between Kelly and Sagan, and I think it is possible that Sagan could emulate Kelly by winning a Grand Tour later in his career. He'll need to work on his climbing though.


A Giro or a Vuelta should be achievable for him. Sometimes less competitive.


----------



## jarlrmai (9 May 2017)

smutchin said:


> I've always thought there are a lot of similarities between Kelly and Sagan, and I think it is possible that Sagan could emulate Kelly by winning a Grand Tour later in his career. He'll need to work on his climbing though.



It depends on the profiles lots of hills or TT stages, lots of retraining required.


----------



## Adam4868 (9 May 2017)

Maybe they will design one for him......


----------



## smutchin (9 May 2017)

jarlrmai said:


> It depends on the profiles lots of hills or TT stages, lots of retraining required.



Kelly won in 1988 by concentrating on bagging lots of time bonuses... sorry, _bonifications_ in the intermediate sprints, avoiding losing too much time in the mountains (with Robert Millar's help!) and beating Cubino in the time trial. Also helped that Delgado was concentrating on the Tour that year.

It would take similar circumstances for Sagan to win a GT but it's not inconceivable. Sagan has already won a lot more at 27 than Kelly had at the same age, and is arguably only just reaching his peak - as he gets older, he could transform himself from a pure sprinter into more of a stage racer/all-rounder in the same way Kelly did.


----------



## jarlrmai (9 May 2017)

Yeah I'd really like to see it happen, I get this horrible feeling he'd get second though


----------



## reacher (22 May 2017)

User33236 said:


> It's a good job he was a great cyclist as he's as monotonous and boring as heck as a commentator!


Perhaps you would prefer Ant an Dec if you want entertainment


----------



## User33236 (22 May 2017)

reacher said:


> Perhaps you would prefer Ant an Dec if you want entertainment


Uncalled for .


----------



## Levo-Lon (22 May 2017)

I like his commentry..he does know his subject..


----------



## Dogtrousers (22 May 2017)

meta lon said:


> I like his commentry..he does know his subject..


That's true, but making him inhale helium at random times, or stabbing him in the backside with a sharp point or dropping ice down his collar while he's taking would go some way to relieving the monotony of his voice.


----------



## TheDoctor (22 May 2017)

Sean Kelly may not have won the Tour, but he did take the green jersey four times. And win the Vuelta, and no end of stage races and Classics.
He was a fantastic rider.
I think Stephen Roche said "People shouldn't say that I have won this race and Sean has won that. They should look at our careers and say that between us we have won every race on the continent worth winning."


----------



## Adam4868 (22 May 2017)

It's a matter of choice I guess,always loved Sean Kelly and his commentary,where as Rob Hatch and his annoying pronunciation of everything.No he does my head in !


----------



## SWSteve (27 May 2017)

Kelly has said many times that riding for CAS their aim was to win in Spain, and the tour was secondary to the Vuelta. Although it may be easier to say that, rather than the race didn't suit him


----------



## Pro Tour Punditry (27 May 2017)

ItsSteveLovell said:


> Kelly has said many times that riding for CAS their aim was to win in Spain, and the tour was secondary to the Vuelta. Although it may be easier to say that, rather than the race didn't suit him


His autobiography is a decent read and it is clear what his and his teams priorities were; he comes across as honest (with some caveats re omerta)


----------



## SWSteve (28 May 2017)

Marmion said:


> His autobiography is a decent read and it is clear what his and his teams priorities were; he comes across as honest (with some caveats re omerta)



Okay - I'll look at picking it up before next holiday


----------



## User33236 (28 May 2017)

Sean, for me, is the the commentary equivalent of what Razorlight is to music. Totally depressing to the point of being suicidal. 

He it a knowledgable bloke on the subject but flaming heck is he tedious to listen to!


----------



## smutchin (30 May 2017)

Adam4868 said:


> Rob Hatch and his annoying pronunciation of everything



But he tries so very hard, the poor lamb!


----------



## Adam4868 (30 May 2017)

smutchin said:


> But he tries so very hard, the poor lamb!



Ive enjoyed the coverage on quest,even warmed to Jonathan Edwards ! Liked all Hayle's,Cummins ect.But Hatch NO stop.....don't get me started.


----------

