Earley (leading) was overshadowed by Kelly and Roche, but he won very big races and carved out a top pro career for himself
This year’s Tour of Britain starts in Ipswich on Sunday and will see the An Post-Sean Kelly Irish riders Sam Bennett and Ronan McLaughlin in the field as well as Belfast’s Peter Hawkins (IG Sigma Sport) and Dubliner Philip Lavery (Node4-Giordana). On the eve of the 2012 race, Graham Healy looks back to Martin Earley’s near-win in the 1989 event, then known as the Kellogg’s Tour of Britain.
In the 1980s and 1990s when Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche were winning races throughout Europe it was sometimes easy to overlook the performances of Martin Earley, despite his numerous big wins.
In 1989 Earley was selected alongside Sean Kelly as part of the PDM team to compete in the Kelloggs Tour of Britain. His season that year had been his best ever. He had taken a stage in the Tour de France as well as finishing 7th in the World Championships in Chambery just before the Kelloggs Tour.
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The 1989 race started with a hilly prologue in Dundee and Earley showed his continuing good form by finishing in 5th position, as Malcolm Elliott (Teka) repeated his performance of the previous year by taking the first leader’s jersey.
Dubliner Earley really came to the fore on the first road stage the following day, as the riders raced from Dundee to Glasgow on a hilly stage of 190 kilometres.
On a day of torrential rain, Kelly and Earley were the chief protagonists as they initiated the key breakaway.
Earley went clear with a few others after the last climb of Stockie Muir, and they maintained their lead on the closing laps in Glasgow. Earley was beaten into third in the sprint by Remig Stumpf (Toshiba), but had done enough to take the yellow jersey from Elliott.
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Afterwards, he said: “I knew I had quite good form because I’ve just finished seventh in the World Championships which for me was a very good place. And then yesterday, I finished fifth and I wasn’t very far off second place so I knew that the condition was quite good.
The riders transferred south for the next stage which went from Manchester to Liverpool. Kelly acted as domestique for Earley and helped him retain the yellow jersey as Phil Anderson (TVM) took the stage.
It was starting to look like Earley might be able to hold on for the overall win after the fourth stage from Chester to Birmingham, as PDM seemed to be in control of the race with just two stages left.
When interviewed before the penultimate stage, Anderson and Robert Millar (Z-Peugeot) were amongst those who considered the Dubliner to be favourite to win the race.
However, on the road to Cardiff it was Millar who attacked with Earley’s team mate Nico Verhoeven marking him. They were soon joined by Mauro Gianetti (Helvetia). Despite sitting on Millar’s wheel throughout the stage, Verhoeven was dropped on the main climb of the day, The Tumble. Millar became virtual yellow jersey as their lead jumped to a massive eleven minutes.
Kelly and Earley tried valiantly to pull the leaders back, as they both broke clear to form a chase group. Verhoeven made the unusual move of turning back in the road to help the chase, but it was to no avail.
They finished over five minutes behind Millar and Gianetti, as the Swiss man took the stage. Earley had lost the yellow jersey and slipped to third place overall. Millar held on for the overall win in London the next day, as Earley slipped back one place.
The PDM team may have taken some consolation from a rare win in a King of the Mountains competition for Kelly, but they must have been ultimately disappointed with the final result. Earley had missed out on possibly the best opportunity he would ever have to win a professional stage race.
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