Sean Kelly Racing Team: Irish legend backs new continental team

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Paídi O'Brien(Image credit: Shane Stokes)

It's two decades since the heights of the Kelly-Roche era but things are once again starting to look up for Irish cycling. Former world junior champion Mark Scanlon and his AG2R teammate Philip Deignan, plus Stephen Roche's son Nicolas (Cofidis) each have ProTour contracts, while others such as Ciarán Power, David O'Loughlin (Navigators Insurance), David McCann, Paul Griffin and Stephen Gallagher (Giant Asia) are signed to continental Professional and continental teams.

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As the 2006 season dawns, there is another reason for optimism. On Monday, January 23 a new project was launched which Cycling Ireland and all of those involved in the sport there hope will guarantee a bright future. The Sean Kelly Racing Team marks the first time the country has had a UCI-registered international team and, thanks to the involvement of the former world number one, interest is high in the squad.

Kelly had an incredible career, reigning as world number one for over four years, taking a then-record four green jerseys in the Tour de France, winning the 1988 Tour of Spain and landing wins in major classics, national tours plus many other events. Although he's largely limited his involvement in the sport in the years since his retirement to some TV commentary, he has been working with young Irish riders for several years. He helped set up a base for them in Belgium, which last year was relaunched as the Sean Kelly Cycling Academy; now, almost twelve months on, the house in Merchtem has led on to a fully-fledged international team.

The aim of the project is to take the country's best unsigned young riders and place them within a structure whereby they have the opportunity to compete against some of the world's big professional teams in UCI ranked events. It's clearly a gradual process; you don't throw newcomers to the lions, after all, but through careful planning, those involved with the team hope that the riders concerned have the best possible environment in which to prosper.

Given the high regard in which he is held, Kelly's involvement has been a big boost. He'll help the riders out, of course, but in the short term, having him as general manager of the new squad meant that it was easier to get sponsors on board than might otherwise have been the case. Work started on the team just four months ago, but things have come together well in that time. A good level of backing has been secured and all systems are go for 2006.

"The Academy has now been going for three years. Myself and the people looking after the riders out there in Belgium felt that it was the time to take it to the next level, to form something like this. We were thinking about it last year and we decided at a late moment to go for it. The past four months have been very busy, running around and trying to get everything organised...as I said, the decision was a bit late and we were wondering if we should wait another year, but ultimately I think the best thing was to do it now."

The plan of Kelly and team manager Kurt Bogaerts is that the squad will feature up to ten Irish riders in 2006, plus several Belgians. Eight of the former have been selected thus far, this number including such riders as Irish under 23 champion Paídi O'Brien, promising first-year senior Ciarán Kelly, and the talented 22 year old Tim Cassidy, who has taken several important results over the years but who has also been unlucky with injury. FBD Insurance Rás stage winner Roger Aiken, Mark Cassidy, Andrew McQuaid and the Concannon brothers Eoin and Miceal complete the Irish contingent.

As for the Belgians, the idea is that they will create a good balance between youth and experience on the team, helping the Irish riders to learn the ropes and also taking the pressure off somewhat by chasing results themselves during the season. Former Chocolade Jacques rider Jehudi Schoonacker, ex-Quick.Step youth team members Dwight Desaever and Stijn Minne are amongst those signed up, as are GP Etienne de Wilde and GP Roger de Vlaeminck winner Peter Schoonjans, sprinter Rieno Stofferis, Bart Cosyn, Harm Van de Kerckhove and Bogaerts.

"The plan for the year is that we are definitely going to do UCI 1.1 and 1.2 ranked events. As Sean has said, we need to make a decision from the start. Perhaps aiming to ride the big classics like Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne is a little much for now, perhaps we will enter those sort of races later in the year. But it is definitely the team's ambition to do the UCI calendar. We are getting a lot of invitations at the moment, I have a full list."

When asked what he is expecting from 2006, Bogaerts has an idea of who might do well. "I am expecting something from every rider. On the highest level, I am expecting a lot of Tim Cassidy, Paídi O'Brien and Roger Aiken. Then you have a few guys just under that level who will help the team, and some day they will get their own chance. Of course, I also expect the Belgian riders to do well...they have an important part to play, both in terms of helping the others learn and also getting results."

"To a certain extent, it is one of the only vehicles Ireland has now to gain UCI points, which are important for selection to the world championships," he explained at the launch. "With Deignan, Scanlon and Roche now going ProTour, we have lost over 300 points [from the continental ranking system]. If we drop that amount of points next year, we fall five or six places in the rankings, so we would only have one guy in the world's and only one guy in the Olympics. So it is very, very important that we hit the ground running and gain UCI points.

"It is a huge opportunity for everyone coming up," he stated. "For the women, the juniors, for the under 16s, for the under 14s – they can all head over and spend a few days, a week, three weeks there. The team will be there in the house as well, so it gives a magnificent opportunity for the riders to over there and see how it works. Take, for example, the under 14 or the under 16 riders; when they go over with their club for the weekend, they can see the riders such as Paídi O'Brien, Tim Cassidy and all of those. That gives them a great incentive to continue on, to stay stuck in.

When asked about the team's goals for the first year, Kelly believes that it is important to take things gradually. There is little point in rushing into big races such as Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne, he explains. "I think we are better to start off and do things an notch under that, standard-wise, because the season is long and there are huge number of races. The first thing is that we need to make sure that we get the lads working as a team, getting to know each other, getting them into races where they can perform and get some results. That is going to be the important thing. It will help them build confidence and once they get that, they can do great things then."

"There would be a number of lads who would be capable of winning a Rás," he said. "I certainly feel that they are in that league at the moment and that they should be able to do that. Of course, the Rás is a very difficult one to win because the team is quite small...to control the race is therefore a very difficult thing to do. Anyone who has been involved in the race over the years knows that. So you have to play many cards to try and get things to work, tactically. But providing we take part, that would certainly be one of our targets for the year."

And so to the season. Following the launch, the team headed out to Benidorm for a week of warm weather training, topping up their winter kilometres and bonding as a squad. They are due to undergo physiological testing while away, then will return to Belgium and start racing in February. It's a new squad, but with a name like Sean Kelly's so closely attached, it will be attracting a strong level of attention.

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