Sean Kelly in Morzine in the 1988 Tour de France; he believes while Roche and Martin may continue to improve, that progression will likely level out soon (Photo: Sirotti)
Sean Kelly has said he believes the Grand Tour potential of Irish stars Nicolas Roche and Dan Martin is still unclear, with both having improved in recent seasons in the three-week races and with time on their side for more of the same.
However, the former world No 1, Tour de France green jersey legend and Vuelta overall winner said those improvements were perhaps close to levelling off.
“I think with Dan Martin; he’s improving all the time,” Kelly said the Garmin Sharp man who will lead the team at this year’s Giro d’Italia and has already won Tour of Vuelta mountain stages.
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“He’s getting better at Grand Tours. He seems to be improving all the time. There’s time on his side because I think age-wise he still has a lot of years left.
“Nicolas Roche also, we see last year in the Vuelta he had a very solid performance. Then there was one day with the horrible weather conditions and so many riders were suffering on that day.
“A lot of riders dropped out and a lot of riders lost a lot of time and Roche was one of those. Otherwise I think a top five in the Vuelta last year would have been possible for him. So that is a big improvement.
“But the question is now much (more) will they improve. There will come a time when it levels out and they do not improve any more.
“So (Roche) will be hoping over the next two years or three years that he will improve as he has been in the last two of three years.”
Kelly added Team Sky would find it much more difficult to achieve its goals this year.
One factor was the form of some of the contenders for the Tour de France from other teams – including Alberto Contador (Tinkoff Saxo) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) - and the fact the UK team’s season to date has been incident-hit.
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The latest issue was Chris Froome’s non start at Liège–Bastogne–Liège today, due to what has been described as a mild chest infection.
“It’s ongoing,” Kelly said of Froome’s problems in recent months.
“First of all before the Tirreno Adriatico I think it was back problem. (He) overcame that and now he’s getting a touch of bronchitis, a chest infection. It all effects your preparation.
“When you look at this time last year, Froome was after having much more success. But I don’t think time-wise he should get into too much of a panic.
“The Tour de Romandie will be important; to get into that and continue right until the end. That will be very important.
“But I think they still have time on their side,” he added of the squad reaching top form for the Tour de France.
He suggested Wiggins’ resurgence at a time when Froome has looked fallible means the selection process for the Tour de France and awarding clear team leadership to one man may not be as straightforward as before.
“For Sky it’s going to be a difficult situation; we see Bradley Wiggins riding quite well in Paris-Roubaix. So it’s going to be a difficult decision; will they have to field the two riders.
“When you look at the Tour de France this year, on day five we have a very difficult cobbled section and that has to come into the building of the team; they have to consider that. It’ll be an interesting time to see what the Tour team selection is going to be in Team Sky.”
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