Qualla: Sean Kelly (cyclist)

Sean Kelly (cyclist): Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit BONTEMPS, CC BY-SA 3.0. On a December morning in 1976, a private jet from Dole Airport landed at Dublin. Inside were three Frenchmen: a directeur sportif from Besançon named Jean de Gribaldy, his pilot acting as interpreter, and a young amateur cyclist who could identify their target. They hired a taxi to Carrick-on-Suir, found the farm at Curraghduff, and learned that Sean Kelly was out somewhere on a tractor. They drove the Dungarvan road until they met a tractor coming the other way, flagged it down, and called out the name. The young man answered: yes, I am Sean Kelly. The signing happened around the family kitchen table later that day - £6,000 a year, take it or leave it. Within eight years Kelly would be the number-one ranked cyclist in the world, and would hold that ranking for a record five consecutive seasons. He had left school at thirteen to milk cows. He spoke almost no French.

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Image: BONTEMPS | CC BY-SA 3.0

Sean Kelly (cyclist): Curraghduff

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Comet Photo AG (Zürich), CC BY-SA 4.0. John James Kelly was born on 24 May 1956 at Belleville Maternity Home in Waterford City, the second son of Jack and Nellie Kelly, who farmed at Curraghduff in County Waterford a few kilometres south of Carrick-on-Suir. He was called Sean - the Irish form of John - to avoid being ...

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Image: Comet Photo AG (Zürich) | CC BY-SA 4.0

Sean Kelly (cyclist): First Race, First Banned, First Contract

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nicola, CC BY-SA 3.0. Sean's first race was on 4 August 1970 at Kennedy Terrace in Carrickbeg - an eight-mile handicap that he won by more than three minutes after starting ahead of his brother. He won the National Junior Road Championships in 1972 and again in 1973. By 1975 he was racking up senior w...

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Image: Nicola | CC BY-SA 3.0

Sean Kelly (cyclist): King of the Classics

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eric HOUDAS, CC BY-SA 3.0. Kelly turned professional in 1977 and rode his first Tour de France in 1978, winning a stage. For years he was tagged as a sprinter who couldn't win stage races. De Gribaldy refused to believe it. He pushed Kelly to lose weight, to climb better, to ride for the whole of a race. T...

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Image: Eric HOUDAS | CC BY-SA 3.0

Sean Kelly (cyclist): The 1988 Vuelta

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nicola, CC BY-SA 3.0. The doubt that hung over Kelly was whether he could win a Grand Tour - three weeks of racing where the climbers usually take it. In April 1988 he flew to Tenerife for the start of the Vuelta a España and immediately lost time when his team-mate Thomas Wegmüller fell out with dyse...

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Image: Nicola | CC BY-SA 3.0

Sean Kelly (cyclist): The Comeragh 100

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nilfanion, CC BY-SA 3.0. In August 1991, Kelly walked away from the Tour of Galicia mid-race. His brother Joe - the one whose footsteps he had always followed, the one who had drawn him into cycling that day at the school - had been killed in the Comeragh 100, a charity ride near Carrick-on-Suir. Sean ca...

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Image: Nilfanion | CC BY-SA 3.0