King Kelly of Carrick-on-Suir

Sam Bennett has more in common with his predecessor as Ireland’s greatest sprinter, Sean Kelly, than just shared nationality. The pair both hail from the same small town - Carrick-on-Suir in County Tipperary, population 5,771. Kelly was one of the greatest all-round cyclists there has ever been, and his versatility was greater than any of the current generation of allrounders: Peter Sagan, Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel or Julian Alaphilippe. Kelly won bunch sprints, but also a grand tour - the 1988 Vuelta - and four out of the five monuments, plus podium finishes in the two major one-day races that eluded him - the Tour of Flanders and World Championships. And seven Paris-Nice titles, two Tours de Suisse and many other stage race wins. Bennett will never match that all-round talent, but one of the more surprising stats in Kelly’s career is that he ‘only’ won five Tour de France stages. Bennett is currently on two, but given his form he can surely envisage approaching Kelly’s total this year and next.