The aftermath of the crash descending in Spain; Kelly on the deck with his bike and boar dead in the road beside him.
Media outlets at home and abroad have covered the story today of Sean Kelly hitting a wild boar while descending a climb out in training in Spain.
When photos appeared on social media of the boar - looking dead as a doornail - on the road and Kelly also on the deck and picking himself up, it looked like a dramatic tale.
And with a full set of photos to go with it, the story was served up on a plate.
It was duly gobbled down by a number of international cycling sites and also domestic news outlets in Ireland.
The only trouble is that King Kelly didn't hit the animal at all; it was already dead when he reached the stretch of road.
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And deciding it would be a bit of craic, he lay on the road with his bike beside him to give the appearance he had hit the animal and killed it but had lived to tell the tale himself.
In the photos of the "incident" shared by Kelly's partner in crime and colleague at An Post-Chainreaction Kurt Bogaerts, the Carrick-on-Suir legend is clearly not injured.
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He is even laughing as he unconvincingly plays the role of dazed crash victim.
His bike is facing the wrong way and he would also have landed much further away from the animal had he hit it at the kind of speed needed to kill it on the spot.
When Bogaerts posted the shots on Instagram he said the incident had taken place descending the Col des Rates and that Kelly had hit the boar when the animal ran across his path.
Apparently one of cycling’s best descender in his day had been powerless to prevent the tragic outcome!
Clearly The Great One intended it as a bit of craic and made the calculation nobody would take it too seriously.
At least he got a few bonifications for the classement; there is no such thing as bad publicity after all and he just happens to be wearing his own branded Onda clothing in the photos!
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