This is Sean Kelly and Eric Vanderaerden in one of the many close, often quite physical, sprint finishes they had. They were both fast, both committed, and in the mid-1980s they clashed a lot.

One particular incident came during the finish of stage 6 of the 1985 Tour de France in Reims. Kelly and Vanderaerden were part of a group that reached the Champagne city ahead of the peloton. The stage winner would come from the group, and the Irishman and Belgian were the fastest. It was going to be another close bout.

They were neck and neck all the way to the line, bumping occasionally, but Vanderaerden’s bumps had a little more force behind them and he edged Kelly towards the barriers.

In the end Kelly had no room to pass, even if he had the legs, and Vanderaerden crossed the line first. He also became race leader, but while the yellow jersey was being presented, members of the race jury were busy.

The upshot – Kelly and Vanderaerden were both relegated to the back of first group. The stage win was given Francis Castaing of France, who’d been third. And Vanderaerden had to surrender the yellow jersey to the man he’d just taken it from, the Dane Kim Andersen.

We recently spoke to Vanderaerden, and a full interview with him will be on the Cycling Legends website soon. One of the things we asked him about was his rivalry with Kelly, because it wasn’t just in the sprints, they were rivals in the classics too.

“Kelly was a much better rider than me,” he said generously. “But Kelly’s best years were before mine, he wasn’t the same rider when I raced against him; he was still very good, and we had some big fights.

“The problem, if you can call it a problem, was we both wanted to win. If we met in a sprint neither of us would give way, but that is the character of a sprinter. I respected Kelly a lot, but it never stopped me trying to beat him. We were like two tigers at each other’s throats.” Much more of that soon on the website. You’ll love it!

📸Cycling Legends Collection
🚴@SeanKellyCC & Eric Vanderaerden

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