Sean Kelly tells us about his first Grand Tour stage win; at the 1978 Tour de France aged 21. He outlines how it changed him and how a Giro win can change Sam Bennett, above.
Sean Kelly believes while Elia Viviani is in great form on the Giro d’Italia, Sam Bennett can beat him sprinting.
And he also says Bennett can climb better than any of the sprinters. That meant he should have a couple of chances to go for victory on this Giro on harder stages when the other sprinters will not be able to cope.
“That would be a perfect scenario for him,” Kelly said of Bennett targeting a stage with a harder finale.
“You could see yesterday that he got over all the lumpy stuff and he got to the very end. That steep ramp with about 700 metres to go really kicked up. It was 13 per cent in places.”
Advertisement
Bennett was on the front of the whittled down peloton right until he last couple of hundred metres. Many of the sprinters were many minutes behind.
Kelly continued: “That final climb yesterday; it was really steep and went all the way to the finish. Yet Sam was still there and the other sprinters weren’t.
“It shows that he can get over that difficult terrain much better than the other sprinters.”
Kelly added while yesterday’s stage finish was slightly too hilly for Bennett, today may be a better opportunity. It was undulating at the finish, but it did not look as hard as yesterday.
“If yesterday had been an even slightly easier finish, well then he would have had a great chance of taking a stage,” said Kelly.
“He has shown a number of times that he can get over the hillier terrain when the other sprinters don’t make it at all.”
While Viviani had a brilliant lead-out train at QuickStep, Bennett could still get one over on the Belgian team.
“It’s always a problem when the good sprinters have those big trains; they have the advantage,” Kelly said.
“And QuickStep, as we know, are the best at that. Viviani has that advantage and that is something Sam is up against.
“But you hope to get a break; maybe get the wheel of Viviani and come off it. But there’s five or six guys want his wheel, so there’s a fight. And you can waste energy in that fight.
“If you look at Sam on Sunday; he took it up that little bit early. But you have to hand it to Viviani. He’s in super shape and he came from behind.
“Sam knew he was coming and he moved over a bit. So you can’t take it away from Viviani so far.”
Bennett has already won five WorldTour races, but is yet to score a Grand Tour win. Kelly believes that can happen at this Giro.
And he feels the psychological effect it can have on Bennett could “transform” him as a bike rider.
He based that comment on his own experience back in 1978 when he took his first Grand Tour stage; at the Tour de France from a breakaway.
He had just turned 21 years and was in his second season as a pro.
And he said the significance of the win went far beyond success on that day. A stage win for Bennett at this Giro, Kelly says, can do the same for his fellow Carrick-on-Suir man.
“I think it could bring him on psychologically; definitely. If he can crack that here and get a stage, I think it would change him an awful lot.
“Going back to before he won the stage in the Tour of Britain; there was a lot of work to be done with him,” Kelly said of Bennett wining stage 5 of that race in 2013 when riding for An Post-Chainreaction.
“And of course Kurt Bogaerts (team manager in 2013 – Ed) did a lot with Sam over that two years we had him; keeping him motivated. And of course he had the injury problems as well.
Related News
“But from the moment he won that stage; something clicked and he was a different rider from then on. That’s when he went and stepped up to the mark quite a bit more.
“And if he can just get a stage here; well then that would change everything for him, hopefully that can happen.
“Last year he came up against Gaviria at the Giro and he was untouchable. And Viviani here now; again he is in super shape.
“If Sam wasn’t unlucky in that way, he probably would have got a stage last year and this year again (already).”
Casting his mind back to Poitiers in 1978, Kelly recalled the impact his first Grand Tour stage win had on his mindset.
“For Sam; he has established himself as a sprinter. When I started out, I wasn’t really at the level of sprinting Sam is at now.
“So I got into a breakaway and won my first stage at the Tour de France. I was riding for Flandria.
“Definitely in terms of my outlook after that; I was thinking differently when you win a stage in the Tour.
“After it; I was working on some other stages for Freddy Maertens at that time. He was one of the fastest and I was working for him.
“I remember my ability in the sprints got more confident and I was up there in the end with Maertens.
“And if he hadn’t been up there and I wasn’t working for him I might have got another stage.
“It’s amazing the way the confidence works; you get the first one and it clicks for you. The confidence is totally different.”
Kelly said when Bennett won his Tour of Britain stage he was offered a place with NetApp-Endura. And despite going up a level he won several races the following year.
A Giro stage win here could give him the same boost, only with much greater rewards waiting for him this time.
Sean Kelly was speaking to stickybottle on a brief visit back to Ireland, from Giro commentary duties with Eurosport, as he is preparing for the Tour de Burren event in June.
There he is riding several sportives over two days; one of them a night into day ride which he believes will be “an incredible experience”.
The Tour de Burren takes place on June 15th and 16th. And while there are three rides to choose from during the traditional Saturday sportive, the new night ride will appeal to many.
It takes the cyclists on a route of between 80km through the incredible Burren landscape; under the cover of darkness thanks to the 2am start.
But the summer sun will be rising very early in the west in June. So it will be a bike ride through sun rise and along the Coast Road back to headquarters in Ballyvaughan.
“I’ll be doing it in June after the Giro, it should be great. It starts on the Friday into Saturday morning at 2:30am,” said Kelly.
“And riders who do it should be able to do the day time ride as well that they’ve always promoted over the years.
“It’s in June so the weather should be good. It will be a lovely thing to do. We’ll be cycling back that coast road by the Cliffs of Moher and back towards Ballyvaughan as the sun rises. So that should be very spectacular.
“It’s an unusual thing to do as well and great experience to take in. It should be really spectacular actually.
“There are other night rides, and a lot of people of course go out really early in the morning to do their training.
“But I think this ride from night into day is something people will want to do, especially in that part of the country; that part of Ireland is spectacular, no doubt.”
Topics
