Sean Kelly looks truly shattered at the end of the 1989 UCI World Road Race Championships in Chambery, France. The Irishman was beaten by Greg LeMond (USA) while Dimitri Konyshev (Soviet Union) crept in to take silver on the line.
By Brian Canty
Sean Kelly has relived in painful detail one of the races that still haunts him; the 1989 World Championships in Chambery, France.
It's is a race he’s played over in his mind, but he still reckons he could have done no more to win the biggest one-day race in cycling.
That day belonged to American Greg LeMond who produced a phenomenal and unbeatable race-winning dash to the line along the rain-soaked streets of the French city.
Stealing in for second was Dimitri Konyshev (Soviet Union) who was part of the day’s escape yet still had the legs to contest the sprint in the end.
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Kelly, jokingly or not, said he “gifted” the Russian the silver medal after he pulled up with metres to go when he knew he wasn’t going to win himself.
“When I think about it, yes; but I wasn’t good enough on the day,” he said when asked if the loss haunted him.
“I think LeMond, on occasions when he can be so strong; he was unbeatable.
“The only regret I have is my gear ratio. I made the wrong choice in hindsight but on the finishing straight for all that week it was a headwind and during the race it was a headwind.
“But then the weather conditions changed and we got that huge thunderstorm and the wind changed and it was a tailwind on the finish stretch.”
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Not alone that but the way the sprint went in the final kilometre was not how Kelly would have liked it.
With such fast-twitch power, Kelly would have preferred a stronger acceleration or kick, as opposed to a gradual winding-up sprint.
“Laurent Fignon attacked a long way out and that really fucked up the sprint for me on a lower gear ratio.
“Normally at the end of a race, after a very difficult sector, you’d have a stall, five or six riders playing cat and mouse where you’d get to the finish.
“There’d be a stall, then a burst where the top-end speed (required) would be less and you would not spin out like I did.
“Fignon attacked with at least 500 metres to go. Greg went after him and the moment he went I was in the wheel and I was pretty sure when we came to Fignon it would slow a little bit.
“If you’ve that little bit of a lower gear you can accelerate a bit easier but that didn’t happen.
“Greg just gave it full gas and in a split second he went and he was just super strong.”
Second was Konyshev.
“He was impressive on the day to still stay up there in the final but I gifted him second.”
Relive the last 9 or so minutes of the race here...
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