Sean Kelly believes that leading pro riders like Tom Pidcock, Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel can successfully combine road and cyclocross racing if their schedules are carefully managed.
Kelly was amongst the 8,000 spectators that watched as the Tour de France green jersey winner van Aert stormed to his first victory of the cyclocross season at the World Cup in Dublin on Sunday.
Cyclocross world champion Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) was also in action in Dublin, finishing third with a last lap burst of pace on the muddy course. The L’Alpe d’Huez stage winner has also combined a busy road calendar along with a cyclocross programme after being crowned world champion in the discipline earlier this year.
Van der Poel missed the Dublin World Cup round but has also been in formidable form since returning to cyclocross and will return to racing at next week’s Val di Sole cyclocross World Cup race that will be contested on snow.
Kelly enjoyed a successful career as a Classics rider in the eighties, often stretching himself across stage races and even winning the 1988 Vuelta a España. He admired the rider’s modern approach to multidisciplinary racing.
“It’s great to see and it proves that you can do both once you’ve studied it well and the riders get to know what they’re capable of doing in the wintertime,” Kelly said.
“Of course not to do too much and get the right amount so it helps you on the road. It can work very well once it’s well planned.”
Kelly says the trio are showing the next generation of riders that multidiscipline riding can be done.
“Pidcock they can very much relate to as he’s a very young guy,” Kelly added.
“Also an English speaker and all of that does help. Now they can see that you can do cyclocross and also the road at a very high level like Pidcock, Van Aert and Van Der Poel.
“It’s a route that maybe we can get some guys doing the road and get more riders onto the road circuit. That’s what we need.”
Kelly who won the Tour de France green jersey four times and nine Monument Classics says that Ireland has had a ‘problem’ for ‘many years’ of few road riders progressing into the senior ranks. He hopes that having the multi-discipline stars in Dublin for the event can help to inspire the next generation of Irish riders.
“To have this event shows the younger guys what it’s like, they can see the big champions here and it’s a big boost,” he added.
“That’s what we need here in…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…