Sport & Publicity and Mousehold Press
announce the publication of
Shay Elliott:
the life and death of Ireland’s first yellow jersey
by Graham Healy
with Richard Allchin

                                                                              
pp 190
plus 12pp photographs
Forewords by Sean Kelly
and Pat McQuaid
£12.95 + £1.50 p&p*** £3.50 p&p Ireland & EU***£7.50 p&p World Wide 
ISBN 978-1-874739-5


At this time of year – a few weeks before the Tour de France – there is usually a host of cycling books issued by the major publishers, some on the Tour itself, others on related cycling subjects and biographies. Our latest addition to these titles, a biography of Shay Elliott, the first great Irish cycling star, has far greater significance for the history of the Tour de France and cycle racing itself and is especially relevant to the current success enjoyed by English speaking riders from Great Britain, USA, Australia and of course Ireland. It was Shay Elliott, together with Britain’s Brian Robinson, who instigated the long but constant march towards the top of international professional road racing by riders from the Englishspeaking world.
It is a remarkable and eventually tragic story, which really should have been told many years ago. “Shay Elliott: the life and death of Irelands first Yellow Jersey” relates that story in detail, and provides a sharp insight to his extraordinary legacy.
The year after Tom Simpson became the first British rider to wear the race-leader’s yellow jersey in the Tour de France, Shay repeated the feat for Ireland. And more so – for not only did he take the jersey after winning the stage over the legendary cobbled roads to Roubaix, but he retained it for three days until, like Simpson, he lost it in the time trial.
Elliott was also the first from the English speaking countries to win stages in the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España (a race in which he held the race leadership for several days and finished on the podium in third place overall) so becoming one of a mere handful of riders to have won stages in all three Grand Tours.
A decade after his death Ireland produced two exceptional riders, Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche, whose achievements surpassed those of Shay Elliott, but Shay was the first, and will always remain so.