Friday 2 March 2012

Paris-Nice – Le Championnat d'Irlandais

Excellent article about Kelly's early days as a pro, and the Irish dominance in Paris-Nice - la course au soleil - in the 1980's.

Kelly hated it. "Paris-Nice had been a race I wanted to ride," he told David Walsh "but my outlook changed pretty quickly. It was so bloody hard. For three-quarters of the stage you worked for Maertens, then you got dropped and ended up finishing five or six minutes down. By the time you finished Maertens had already received his bouquet of flowers for winning. Paris-Nice opened my eyes.

The full article is here. Print this post
Posted by mcg at 16:25
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1 comment:

board tc said...

Bradley Wiggins, holder of six Olympic medals (3 golds) over 3 Olympics won Paris-Nice this year.

Wiggins was only the second Briton to win it, the last being Tom Simpson 45 years ago in 1967 - the same year he died of heat exhaustion in the Tour.

Wiggins was quoted afterwards "To follow in Tom Simpson’s footsteps to become the second Brit to win . . . everybody else on the list – Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Indurain – its a massive thing."

No mention for Sean Kelly who won it 7 consecutive times between 1982-88, after Stephen Roche won it in 1981. The next rider with the most wins has 5.

Monday, March 12, 2012 10:15:00 pm

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