King Kelly, as I baptised him, (and it took!), was my cycling hero when, based in Bruxelles, cameras draped around my weary neck, I followed all races on the continent, perched on the back of a motorbike, in the eighties and nineties.

Built like a JCB, Sean was the toughest of the toughest , AND he was as CUTE as one can get in the peloton.

An anecdote: while cycling on the Flemish roads, it was the custom for cyclists at the front, to shout “ Putte” if a dangerous pot hole loomed ahead. Cyclists would then be cautious and slow down. Sean took full advantage of that, and, when he wanted to mount an attack, he would slowly , but surely propel himself to the front, and, when the moment for an attack was right, he would shout “Putte”, and instead of slowing down, he ll pedal like hell…

Paris-Roubaix ( The hell of the North) is one of cycling’s most brutal one-day races. held every April in Northern France , weaving in and out, alongside the Belgium border.250 kilometres, 70 of them on bone-rattling cobblestones that shake bikes and bodies non stop. Punctures, broken wheels and falls are the order of the day , either in clouds of dust if the weather is dry and muddy and slippery as hell on wet days.

Kelly won it twice, in 1984 and 1986 !

He also won Milan-San Remo twice, ( 1986.1982 ), Liege-Bastogne-Liege twice (1984.1989 ), Giro di Lombardia three times, (1983, 1985, 1991)

Gent-Wevelgem three times. La Fleche Wallone twice, Paris-Tours twice.

He also won a staggering 7 Paris-Nice !! ( an eight day race ). Eddy Merckx, the greatest cyclist of all time won it three times and Jacques Anquetil, five times

He also won the Vuelta ( The Tour of Spain ), in1988.

Four green Jersey in the Tour de France, 5 stage wins and two stage wins in the Giro ( Tour of Italy )

What a Gladiator!

After seeing from very close by how tough professional cycling is, I am in awe of a true Irish legend: SEAN KELLY.