30 Facts About Paul Kimmage

Paul Kimmage was born on 7 May 1962 and is an Irish sports journalist and former amateur and professional road bicycle racer, who was road race champion of Ireland in 1981, and competed in the 1984 Olympic Games.

Paul Kimmage wrote for The Sunday Times newspaper and others, and published a number of books.

Paul Kimmage's brothers enjoyed the spotlight: Raphael finished second in the 1984 Ras Tailteann, while Kevin won the race in 1991.

Paul Kimmage replicated his reputation as a successful amateur in Ireland, for the French ACBB team and the Belgian CC Wasquehal amateur team.

Paul Kimmage represented his country at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, in the team time trials, where the team placed 16th of 26.

Paul Kimmage was sixth in the 1985 amateur world road championship.

In 1986 Paul Kimmage joined the RMO team under Bernard Thevenet.

Paul Kimmage's career includes ninth on stage 7 of the 1986 Tour de France before completing the Tour in 131st place.

Paul Kimmage was in the Irish team with Stephen Roche, Sean 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 Paul Kimmage finished eighth, Kelly thanked Roche, Earley and Paul Kimmage for closing the gap to a break and ensuring his yellow jersey.

Paul Kimmage supported Roche in the 1989 Giro d'Italia which was won by Laurent Fignon with Roche finishing ninth.

Paul 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, Paul Kimmage withdrew and subsequently gave up as a professional.

Paul Kimmage always struggled with injury and he retired with no wins, blaming systemic doping in the peloton.

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

Paul Kimmage admitted to using amphetamines to ride non-controlled criteriums on a few occasions, and caffeine suppositories, but says he stayed away from more powerful and dangerous drugs that other cyclists were using.

Paul Kimmage wrote a biography of Matt Hampson entitled Engage: The Fall and Rise of Matt Hampson.

Paul Kimmage had been a sports journalist with the Sunday Independent in Ireland.

Paul Kimmage 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.

In 2012 Paul Kimmage was laid off from The Sunday Times.

Paul Kimmage has claimed that the loss of his job is related to his reporting on doping in cycling.

Paul Kimmage has described his difficulty with being dispassionate on the issue.

Paul Kimmage told Today FM "sometimes I let myself down" while covering the topic, relating his passion to his own experience in the sport and the knowledge that other riders have died from doping.

In 2012 Paul Kimmage was named among the top 10 most influential sportswriters in Britain by the trade publication, UK Press Gazette.

Paul Kimmage is a panelist on the Newstalk 106 Sunday Sports radio show and a regular contributor to The Last Word on Today FM.

Paul Kimmage has a history of confrontations with former professional cyclist Lance Armstrong.

Paul 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.

Press attributed this to articles Paul Kimmage had written for The Sunday Times and L'Equipe which discussed doping and UCI.

The lawsuit was later dropped, but Paul Kimmage had received money from the public to prepare a defence, so he decided to sue the UCI himself in a criminal court.

Paul Kimmage stated that he was doing it for the whistleblowers who were defamed by the UCI.

UCI withdrew its suit fully, and McQuaid allowed his to rest, but Verbruggen pursued his, and secured a win, with Paul Kimmage required to publish apologies, not repeat certain allegations, and pay 12000 euro compensation.