Who's bringing the horse hurley to France? A Tour de France legend gets to grips with the ash after it was gifted to him by the Irish team (Photo with thanks to Camille Le Saux - Be-Celt.com)
Question: Who's bringing the horse hurley to France? Answer: David McCann is!
Currently managing the Irish team in France at the Kreiz Breizh Elites stage race, three-time Olympian David McCann had a special Irish gift for one of the race's ambassadors.
Frenchman Joel Pelier, who took an epic stage victory at the Tour de France after one of the longest escapes in the race's history, was presented with a hurley by McCann.
The gift, which seemed to go down very well indeed, was a nice touch by the Irish and a great token of the deepening relationship between Team Ireland at the race organisation.
Advertisement
Pelier winning stage 6 of the 1989 Tour de France after a massive solo breakaway; one of the longest in the race's history.
National teams have gone to the event in each of the last five years and of late some of those riders based on the home scene have won selection; a really welcome development after years of being overlooked for any form of national road selection.
Pelier couldn't wait to swing the hurley around the place and judging by these photos was genuinely delighted with what is a unique gift from Ireland for those not versed in Gaelic games.
The Frenchman won a fantastic stage of the Tour de France in 1989 with a 150km solo breakaway; an epic ride made all the more memorable after his emotional appearance on the podium.
Pelier – then aged 27 years – went into the Tour that year having been written off by some in French cycling who underestimated him.
Related News
Pelier with Irish team manager David McCann and rider Mark Downey; the latter fresh from a silver medal-winning ride at the European Track Championships (Photo with thanks to Camille Le Saux - Be-Celt.com)
He had collapsed on the summit finish on the Col du Granon during the 1986 Tour and had been airlifted off the mountain to hospital.
The following year he won stage 2 of the Nissan Classic from Waterford to Cork, reaching the finish line solo after attacking last time up the infamous St Patrick’s Hill.
And in 1988 he had quit the Laurent Fignon-led Super-U team after a disagreement with management.
He then made an unusual move for a Frenchman at the time in joining a Spanish team, becoming on the only French rider on the BH squad.
And on Friday, July 7th, 1989, he took flight on the longest stage of that year’s Tour – the 259km trek from Rennes to Futuroscope – and carved his name into the race’s history.
Irish team rider Mark Dowling gets his small ball eye in (Photo with thanks to Camille Le Saux - Be-Celt.com)
He escaped as the field had almost 100km completed on stage 6 and his lead reached a whopping 17 minutes at one point.
That put him virtual yellow jersey even though he had started the day in 62nd overall and some 9:28 down on a fresh-faced Greg LeMond (ADR).
And while the bunch got organised and began to hunt him down as the crosswinds blew and the rain fell, he hung on and took a fabulous solo win; by 1:23 from Eddy Schurer (TVM) who had jumped away from the main field to take the runner-up slot.
In 3rd place on the dead was Eric Vanderaerden (Panasonic) followed by Adrie Van Der Poel (Domex) and Rudy Dhaenens (PDM).
Sean Kelly (PDM) was 11th on the day while Stephen Roche (Fagor), Paul Kimmage (Fagor) and Martin Earley (PDM) all finished in the bunch – Earley winning stage 8 into Pau two days later.
Topics
