An Post team launches with big targets

Brian Canty

Irish cycling legend and An Post team Directeur Sportif Sean Kelly believes fellow Carrick-on-Suir rider Sam Bennett has what it takes to make it to the top of the sport and as such, he is resigned to losing the precocious talent at the end of the season to a bigger team.

Kelly, speaking at the official launch of the team yesterday in Belgium, said that while he recognised the sacrifices required to make it to the top in cycling were extreme, he believes the 21-year-old is good enough to mix it with the best.

“Sam of course has had the last year with us and he came from a year almost totally out through injury so he should have a good year this year.

“He has to bridge that gap and he has to get some results. As well as that, he needs to move out of our team and onto a bigger team at the end of the year and that’s the objective. We’ve got to get the best out of him. We will push him, which is the key word; you have to because you have to drive these guys on the bike there and in the races you have to motivate them and really push them to get 100% from them.

“The first half of the year he struggled a lot but then he got into it better and he finished off the year quite well so, this year, he should move on again from that level and up quite a bit so we’ll see in the first couple of months of this year, that will be the answer time.”

With ten new signings on board and many of the pro-Tour teams now taking a keen interest in the An Post team’s results following a terrific 2011 season, Kelly is adamant he has assembled his best ever line-up.

“Looking at the team on paper, it’s the strongest we’ve had ever,” said the four-time winner of the green jersey at the Tour de France.

“It should equal results but it doesn’t always work like that. I’m pleased and the reason I’m pleased is because I know some of the other continental teams, the budget we have is about 60% of the budget of some of the other teams and our results are much greater than those teams.

“So for that reason, it’s a success story and yeah, like Kurt mentioned, he puts a lot of work into it. He’s really focussed on the team. The personnel we have is a very good team of people and that goes on down through to the riders so we’re punching way over our weight but that’s the way it is.”

Though they have “punched above their weight” in the last number of years, Kelly is keen to point out that there is still much more to achieve.

“We have a very strong team yes, and Kurt [manager] asks me questions, ‘what do you want to do’ and I say, ‘No, what do we have to do.’ And the answer is I think we have to step up to another level and we’re ready for it. [Gediminas] Bagdonas and Nico [Eeckhout] both had great seasons but there’s a few other guys here who are really going to have to push on and try and get to another level.

“It’s always difficult but that’s what we must do. Unfortunately we lost some good guys in [Andy] Fenn and [Matt] Brammeier last year but that’s part of the game, that’s part of the sport.”

On the hot topic of Alberto Contador, Kelly admitted he was “surprised” by the two year suspension the Spaniard received following his positive test for clenbuterol during the 20120 Tour de France.

“I was surprised that Contador got two years,” he opined. “I was always saying that if he got suspended that maximum it would be a year but I was then thinking the max would be a six month suspension but I was surprised when he was given a two year suspension but again these cases, when they go legal, there’s a lot of stuff in them that we haven’t heard about yet and it’s something you can’t really make comment on totally until we hear all the evidence which will probably come out now a bit later on so maybe there’s something in there that we haven’t heard about.

“But then, he got a two-year [ban] but he’s really only going to serve six months, although he is going to lose the races that he’s won, it’s still only a six month suspension.”

Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/mba_cBl0oow/post.aspx

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