I started watching cycling just after Sean Kelly's peak. Looking at this palmares, and it's just unbelievable. How can a guy win Paris-Roubaix and win the Vuelta and finish 4th in the Tour? Could he climb? What rider would be comparable today?
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I've compared Benoot to Claude Criquielion in the past, and i think from the current generation, he would be a better fit than Alaphilippe or Valverde. In this day and age, Benoot wouldn't be able to win the Vuelta unless he would shift focus, but given his weight he is an excellent climber (podium in Tour de Suisse last year, top 20 in the TDF, top 10 in Dauphiné iirc)...I can explain it to you. In the 1970s/80s the talent pool was a lot less. Domestiques didn't get paid what they are now. A team leader was expected to be a leader for all races, because they took up most of the budget. Teams didn't have the budget for different leaders in different races (no World Tour back then)
So Kelly was a incredibly robust rider. He could turn up for any race. At KAS he had to do Spanish races between monuments.. An equivalent now would be Gilbert, Alappilipe, maybe Valverde, but I'm not sure about his GC credentials now.
The comparison would be pre-crash Jalabert ('94), post-crash he was a different rider indeed. Although it could be said that Kelly was a much better climber in the later part of the '80s than he was in the late '70s, early '80s.Even Jalabert can’t quite be an apt comparison because while he displayed much of the same skills as Kelly they were not at the same time. Jalabert started as a sprinter and Green Jersey winner then developed post crash into a climber with punch that could contest top 10 GC but had lost the bunch sprint level then.
Don’t think we will ever see an insanely accomplished run like Kelly winning RVV, Basque Country then PR in 8 days.
Put the qualities of Sagan and Valverde together in one rider and you get... Sean Kelly!
Needs someone in there to represent his TT skills... Was a Grand prix des nations winner (the then equivalent of TT World championships)
Sagan is well able to TT, but TT's don't count towards points jerseys. He has a win and 9 top 10s in ITTs other than the national championship. The 1 win led to his GC win in the Tour of California.Needs someone in there to represent his TT skills... Was a Grand prix des nations winner (the then equivalent of TT World championships)
Sagan is well able to TT, but TT's don't count towards points jerseys. He has a win and 9 top 10s in ITTs other than the national championship. The 1 win led to his GC win in the Tour of California.
Sagan is not even better ITT-er than Valverde, and Bala definitely could not brag about his TT qualities..Absoutley, but Kelly was an excellent time trialist, world class on his day. And for all sagan's many abilities he's probably never been at that level TT'wise.
Sagan never contests TTs. He generally never has anything to ride for. He's finished top-20 in TdF ITTs twice, both times ahead of riders contesting GC places.Sagan is not even better ITT-er than Valverde, and Bala definitely could not brag about his TT qualities..
His last of his 5 Tour stage wins was 1982, which not-coincidentally, was his first green jersey. He won a group sprint into Pau after a stage where the favourites group has stayed together over a couple of cols. After that, he would contest every sprint, and every mountain stage, with the result that he collected a lot of 2nd places for the rest of his career. (21 2nd places, 17 3rds)When Sean Kelly was winning his Green Jerseys at the Tour, was he contesting all the sprint finishes like Sagan does?
Edit: Looking at PCS results for his TDF, he absolutely was. Amazing that he contested all the sprints, and then hung on in the mountains and was great in the TT's. What a freaking rider!
Don't forget he won 3 stages and had two 2nd places in the Pais Vasco that year. The 7th place finish was a bit of an aberration.In 1984 Kelly came 2nd at De Ronde. The next day he started the Pais Vasco. Six stages - never below 7th - he won GC. One day rest and then he wins Roubaix.;
This is ridiculous, But also a reminder of how much higher the standard is now.