Sean Kelly has hailed Sam Bennett clinching the green jersey in the Tour de France as "great for cycling in Ireland".
The 29-year-old won the final stage of the race on Sunday as he came home first at the Champs-Elysees in Paris to become the first Irish rider since Kelly in 1989 to claim the green jersey.
Speaking on RTE's Morning Ireland, Kelly said: "It's unbelievable - just so great for cycling in Ireland.
"Sam, he has a huge amount of followers. And everybody in cycling, and outside of cycling, they've all got behind him. We've seen that on social media.
"It's amazing to see that he's won the green jersey, he's won two stages, and I'm just so happy for him because I had quite a lot of contact with him when he was in the An Post/Chain Reaction team.
"When you take somebody, and you try to take them along for a number of years, and you see him succeeding when he goes into the top ranks... it's just been a great tour.
"I think it's going to be really important for Irish cycling because now, with the exposure we're getting at home, the younger generation, I think, will get more into cycling, and that's what we need.
"The grassroots, we need to get more and more involved in the racing end. We've been lacking that, because of other other sports. Cycling Ireland will have to take advantage of this, and promote cycling a bit more.
"We will see the fruit of this, with more riders maybe in five or six years, because of the achievements of Sam Bennett in this Tour de France."
Kelly added: "We always talk about the Champs-Élysées being the world championships for sprinters.
"But to win in with the green jersey on your shoulders, that's a bigger bonus again.
"I think in the last stage, we were expecting Bennett to be good on the Champs-Élysées, but the way he went out and won it with is team there, getting into the positions, and the margin he won by in the end - it's just amazing.
"It's something that he will remember for the rest of his life."
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