Paul Kimmage

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Paul Kimmage (born May 7, 1962 in Dublin, Ireland) is an award-winning sports journalist who writes for the Sunday Times newspaper in the United Kingdom and is a former professional road bicycle racer.

Kimmage was born into a cycling family - his father, Christy, was road race champion of Ireland in 1962 and his brothers Raphael and Kevin were also successful.

Contents 1 Career 1.1 Amateur career 1.2 Professional career 2 Rough Ride 3 Relationship with Lance Armstrong 4 References

[edit] Career

[edit] Amateur career

Paul Kimmage had a prominent career as an amateur, notably his 6th place at the amateur world road race championship. His brothers also enjoyed the spotlight - Raphael finished second in the 1984 Ras Tailteann while Kevin won the race in 1991.

Kimmage replicated his reputation as a successful amateur in Ireland, for the French ACBB team and the Belgian CC Wasquehal amateur team. He also represented his country at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California. Notable performances as an amateur included July 5, 1981 where he became the national road race champion ahead of the old but still competitive Paddy Flanagan.^[1] He was sixth in the 1985 amateur world road championship. He also finished ninth in a professional race, Bordeaux-Paris behind Belgian René Martens in 1985.^[2]

[edit] Professional career

In 1986 Kimmage joined the RMO team under Bernard Thévenet. During his time in the peloton he wrote pieces in Irish newspapers interested in the sport because of the success of countrymen Stephen Roche and Seán Kelly.

His career includes ninth on stage 7 of the 1986 Tour de France before completing the Tour in 131st place (his only finish in 3 participations of the Tour). He was in the Irish team with Stephen Roche, Seán Kelly and Martin Earley that prepared together and competed at the UCI Road World Championships in 1987 that ended with a win by Stephen Roche. Several weeks later during the 1987 Nissan Classic in which Kimmage finished eighth, Kelly thanked Roche, Earley and Kimmage for closing the gap to a break and ensuring his yellow jersey.^[3]

Kimmage left RMO at the end of 1988 and rode for half a season for the Fagor-MBK team of Stephen Roche and Eddy Schepers with directeur sportif Patrick Valcke. He supported Roche in the 1989 Giro d'Italia which was won by Laurent Fignon with Roche finishing ninth. Kimmage was planning on ending his professional cycling career at the end of the 1989 Nissan Classic which ended each year on O'Connell Street in Dublin but after Roche had to withdraw from the 1989 Tour de France, Kimmage withdrew and subsequently gave up as a professional.^[4]

He always struggled with injury and he retired with no wins, blaming systemic doping in the peloton. In Kimmage's book Rough Ride he talks of taking amphetamines in a post-season exhibition race, known in cycling as a criterium, something that was common practice at that time in cycling; criterium results were often staged, with a win being guaranteed for the biggest name or local hero.^[5]

[edit] Rough Ride

In May 1990, Kimmage published Rough Ride, detailing his experiences as a domestique which included references to drug use, including that of his own.

Kimmage was vilified within cycling as having "spat in the soup," and within Ireland for having slurred Kelly and Roche. Roche responded with anger and threat of litigation, though Kimmage had never named him or Kelly among those he had seen doping. The book won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year in its year of publication.

Kimmage had been a sports journalist with the Sunday Independent in Ireland. He left for the Sunday Times soon after an incident in 2002, when the newspaper misrepresented an article he had written about Roy Keane in the wake of the Saipan saga involving Keane. The editors had taken a quote from Keane out of context to run a headline that implied Keane was planning to leave his wife.

[edit] Relationship with Lance Armstrong

Paul Kimmage has a history of confrontations with seven times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. Kimmage has invoked the ire of Armstrong over claims that most of Armstrong's early US Postal cycling team were doped, claiming that riders like George Hincapie had taken performance enhancing drugs. Kimmage continues to accuse many cyclists, in particular Armstrong, of doping.

This confrontation received widespread coverage before the Tour of California, when Kimmage asked Armstrong a question regarding dopers. Upon learning the identity of Kimmage, who had earlier referred to Armstrong as the "cancer" of cycling, Armstrong responded aggressively to the question, with the heated exchange being uploaded to popular video sharing sites.^{[6] [7]}

[edit] References

Preceded by Dan Topolski & Patrick Robinson

William Hill Sports Book of the Year winner 1990

Succeeded by Thomas Hauser