Kelly seeks indoor velodrome and carding consideration for riders

Irish cycling legend Sean Kelly warns that Irish riders won’t become a force on the continent unless an indoor velodrome is built and the carding system for riders is examined.

Kelly, speaking at the launch of the An Post/Chain Reis action team in Belgium yesterday, said Britain has carved out a reputation as a world leader in the sport on the back of its track team and sees no reason why we can’t replicate the template.

“First of all build a track in Ireland and we’ll start from there,” the Carrick-on-Suir legend said. “And in 10 years we will have something like what the Brits have with so many ProTour riders and Olympic medallists.

“The children getting into cycling now, their parents are worried about their safety going on the road but if you start them on a track, teach them to ride, you could build from there. But we don’t have one so it’s going to be a bigger struggle to get more young riders into the sport, and that’s what we’re missing right now.

“The advantage is you can start them off on the track and develop them and see what kind of talent they have and that would be the perfect situation in Ireland if we had that. Some of the guys we have on the team now come from track backgrounds (New Zealanders Glenn O’Shea and Shane Archbold) and we saw they had talent from the track.”

Funding of riders was also something Kelly highlighted as being crucial to the development of talent here.

“We haven’t been carded last year which is something I’ve been fighting a lot with the sports council for. You have the carding system and, okay it’s great for those who get it but for guys just outside it, I feel young guys are suffering.

“The guys who are 19, 20 years of age, if you give them €5-€7000 a year it would make a huge difference. Our top guys get carded (Nicolas Roche and Dan Martin) but they don’t need it because they’ve a good enough contract. When you get to that point there should be no carding for those guys anyway.

“I talked about it at least four years ago with the sports council. It could be the difference between a guy making a career out of cycling and not.”