CYCLING LEGEND KELLY HIT BY EX-MASSEUR'S RACE DRUGS CHARGES

A former top professional cycling masseur has made a number of sensational
drugs allegations about former world number one, Sean Kelly. Willy Voet, the
53-year-old Belgian masseur who was arrested last year at a border
check-point in France and found with over 400 doses of performance-enhancing
drugs, has made the allegations in a book to be published on Tuesday.

Extracts from the book, Massacre a la chaine: trente ans de tricheries
(Chain massacre: 30 years of cheating) which appeared last week in
Paris-Match makes the allegations against Kelly, who was closely associated
with Voet during the Eighties.

In the book, Voet makes allegations about Kelly winning the Tour of Lombardy
in 1983. And yesterday, in an interview published in L'Equipe, Voet gave
details another allegation against Kelly at Pau in 1983, where he had taken
the yellow jersey in the Tour de France.

When shown the published extract on Friday evening by the Sunday
Independent, Kelly declined to comment on the allegations. "I will not be
making any comment until I get more information on the full contents of the
book," he said.

In a glittering career that spanned three decades, Kelly captured almost
every major in cycling and for five straight years was the world number one.
He also twice tested positive for drugs. Ironically, one of those
"positives" was in the same Paris-Brussels race about which Voet makes an
allegation about Kelly.

In the biography Kelly, written by David Walsh and published in 1986, Kelly
claimed that the adverse result was caused by irregularities in the dope
testing procedure.

"There is no way I took anything," he said. "I am convinced that the mistake
happened because of irregularities at the testing centre that day. The
medical control at Paris-Brussels was very badly organised and lots of
people were in the room who had no right to be there."

"A few days later, Kelly got a letter from the International Federation
informing him he had tested positive at Paris-Brussels. The product? Stimul,
a derivative of amphetamines. The Irishman was dumbstruck. I launched an
investigation straight away and we soon found what had happened. The
mechanic had forgotten he had taken the
product a few days before, to keep him awake while driving on a long
distance transfer. The Irishman was disqualified."

In yesterday's interview with L'Equipe, Voet spoke of his deep affection for
Kelly. "Above all," he said, "I don't want to smash the legend of Kelly. He
was a champion."

Massacre a la chaine chronicles Voet's 30 years as a masseur on the
professional cycling circuit and the allegations promise to blow apart the
hypocrisy surrounding alleged the culture of drug taking in the sport. Apart
from Kelly, the Belgian points the finger at a number of prominent stars
notably the Frenchman Richard Virenque, who has continued to plead his
innocence despite the damning evidence of last year's Tour de France.

Voet claims the Frenchman used Erythropoeitin (EPO) and human growth
hormones. He also alleges that Denmark's Bjarne Riis took massive amounts of
EPO to win the 1996 Tour De France. The book is published on Tuesday by
Calmann-Levy.