Sam's Tour success lifts spirits

 

IRELAND’S latest Tour de France hero Sam Bennett, the  winner of the green points jersey and the coveted final stage into Paris, got the front page story, a big inside spread and the editorial in the Irish Independent on Monday.

     “SAM BENNETT’S HEROIC DEEDS BOOST THE NATIONAL MORALE”

              So ran the headline. Followed by the sub heading which spoke for us all:

 “The tonic that is sport has become even more precious”.

This of course was referring to the positive distraction sport has provided us from the Covid 19 Pandemic. And in particular, the successful completion of the Tour de France against a backcloth of rising infection in France and across Europe and now in the UK.

The big story of Slovenia’s Pogacar’s brilliant overall victory barely got a mention in the Irish paper, which was all about Bennett, with due reference to the two Irish heroes of the past.

For Bennett is only the second Irishman to win the green after Kelly did so four times in the 1980s, the last time in 1989,  while Stephen Roche won the Tour outright in 1987.

 

There is a lovely quote in the story which perfectly captures an Irish figure of speech as Bennett describes the build up to his successful sprint win: “…I was feeling the legs a little bit and I thought, ‘Oh, I’m after messing this up a bit, I’m after using up too much of my legs'.”

It was expression “I’m after”. I could hear the Irish accent coming across there.

 Irish Independent’s reporter Gerard Cromwell tells of massive home-support in Bennett's native Carrick-on-Suir (coincidentally, Kelly’s home town, too). Throughout the Tour the town was bedecked in bunting and flags carrying Sam’s name.

Says Cromwell. “There is already a sports centre and a town square in Carrick named after his predecessor Sean Kelly.

“Unlike Kelly, Bennett now has stage wins in all three Grand Tours of Spain, Italy and France. It may be time to build a new monument.”

The celebrations for Bennett gave me pause to reflect Kelly’s achievements in the green jersey, which I witnessed first-hand.

I cast my mind back to 1982 and the stage to Pau when Kelly won the stage to take the green for the first time.

Thirty years on and now it’s Bennett’s time.  Ireland has a new cycling star.