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Video Reviews:
The Sean Kelly Story: An Irish Cycling Legend

Sean Kelly

Only Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Jacques Aquetil have more victories in their careers in classics and major tours than Sean Kelly. This two part set highlights how a farmers son from a small village in Ireland became one of the most successful and respected cyclists in the history of the sport.

Part one reviews Kelly's impressive list of classic victories. This includes Tour of Lombardy (three times), Paris Roubaix (twice), Liege Bastogne Liege (twice), Milan Saint-Remo (twice). He also won Paris - Nice an incredible seven times in a row. The classic wins led to global fame for Kelly as well as winning the Superprestige Pernod Trophy (the World Cup of the day) three times straight (1983-85).

Part one is more than just about his classic wins. It documents his upbringing and early cycling memories and how his tough farm upbringing prepared him for the rigours of the professional peloton. His early knowledge of cycling was only the RAS and Eddy Merkcx and he only heard of the major classics a year before he turned professional! If he didn't have a great knowledge he certainly had the talent. He impressed Jean Le Gribaldy enough to track Kelly down to his farm in Tipperary and offer him a professional contract for Flandria in 1977.

Kelly had the reputation as a hard man and it seemed to revel in the coldest and harshest conditions while other riders struggled to cope. His toughness was further shown by the remarkable number of races he competed in (160 in 1984 winning 32). He was criticised for racing too much at the time but he felt it was the best preparation and points to the fact that his wins that year came throughout the season.

Part two focuses on Kelly's career in the Major Tour races. He won the green jersey in the Tour de France for the most consistent finisher, a then record 4 times. Despite this incredibly, he only wore the maillot jaune as race leader for one day in his whole career. He reveals that racing for a Spanish team (Sem/Skil/KAS) for a large part of his career was possibly a disadvantage as he was asked to race in a large number of smaller races in Spain and was tired as a result. Maybe he did race too much then?

Kelly spent many years racing for Spanish teams like KAS.

Part Two also covers his memorable 1988 Tour of Spain victory and the parade held in Carrick-on-Suir in his honour. Several stars of cycling express their admiration for Kelly including Merckx, Delgado, Roche and Breukink. A race is organised in Carrick to mark his retirement.

Overall
This two tape set has been criticised because the footage is not chronological across the two tapes. However, because of this, the viewer is able to watch either part in isolation. I also think that as the set is so long (3 hours 16 minutes across the two tapes) that a chronological version would actually become quite tiresome.