OK - I'm going to talk about man love in relation to one of the least likely peddlers to have ever been involved in man on man action. Just to be clear I have no issue with man-o-man, and whatever keeps you warm at night is OK with me, but I don't think Sean Kelly was ever likely to have been sprung in the sack with another hombre no matter how cold it was.
But I love Sean Kelly. I really really love him. I guess that because I first got into bikes in the late 70's early 80's that I was always going to have a thing for someone like Kelly. I liked Phil Anderson and Allan Pieper too, cause they were Aussies, but I wanted to model myself on the Irishman.
He was not the caricature of hardness that some modern sports superstars try to carry off, he was just genuinely hard. Hard in a "I earn my keep down the pits" coal miner way. He had legs that looked like they were a prop for an anatomy lesson, with veins, tendons and gristle all on display and his form follows function approach to his uniform had the effect of making him seem to me at least to be super stylish.
There are many things that I love about Sean Kelly but a few are worth special mention.
1. His turned up cap - heaps of people did this but it seems to sit particularly well with Kelly
2. Black shoes with plain white socks - that's the way you do it kids.
3. Persistence with cleats and toe clips long after everyone else was using goofy Looks - you can almost imagine him saying "tey ha surfed ma well uta noow". Imagine being the last bloke to win a classic in cleats, toe straps and down tube shifters.
4. Bike is a tool of the trade attitude - Its commonly known that he rode a flexy flyin Vitus with neary a complaint for much of his career.
5. The last man to have a crack at just about anything - you got the feeling that you really just had to point him and say "dat whey Seeeeaan" and he would be off at a million miles an hour.
6. The fact that he was nearly unbeatable at Paris-Nice at the start of the season after presumably busting his clacker in the rain for the whole of the Irish winter.
I know I am a misty eyed old nostalgic, but why can't cycling have a bit more of what Sean Kelly was made of in it today??
Fair play to ya fatsprintking. I remember as a youngster myself and a friend would predict the winner of that days stage in the TdF. Almost without fail we would come to the conclusion that Kelly was in with a shout. It never came to pass though and the best i ever seen him come was one of his many second places. But still he was the best for me and my ultimate sporting hero.
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