Raphael Kimmage dishes out the pain going up the Wicklow Gap in the green of Ireland in 1984. He would ride the first Nissan Classic a year later, his swansong international event (Photo with thanks to the Delaney family)
The Irish cycling community has reacted with shock following the sudden passing of Raphael Kimmage this weekend.
A married father of four, Raphael was a former national title holder and represented Ireland on the road all over Europe up to and including the World Championships.
Sadly Raphael, who was from Kilmore in Dublin, died at Beaumont Hospital in the city on Saturday.
Raphael Kimmage hailed from one of the Irish cycling’s most prolific families; his father Christy and brothers Paul, Kevin and Christopher were all top cyclists who represented Ireland.
Christie’s wife and the Kimmage brothers’ mother, Angela, also took a very keen interest in the sport and supported her sons through their careers.
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While Paul, who would turn pro and rode the Tour de France, blazed the trail among the Kimmage siblings; Raphael was just behind him in age and success was immediate for him.
He was a very talented youth rider and as a junior competing for Aer Lingus he won the national road race league, beating Gary Thomson (Eagle CC) to that title, in 1979.
Later that year he showed his versatility in lapping the elite field in Eagle CC’s cyclocross race in the Phoenix Park.
His brother Paul and future Giro and Tour stage winner Martin Earley were forced to settle for 2nd and 3rd on the day; both a lap down on the junior victor.
Raphael Kimmage would go on to dominate the cyclocross discipline, and win the national title, for the best part of a decade from the late 1970s.
Immediately Kimmage turned senior he won some of the country’s biggest road races and progressed to the senior national team.
By the time his teenage years were over he had enjoyed a string of successes in the junior and senior ranks.
From 1980 he did his racing at home in the colours of Tara Road Club; something of a crack outfit run under the watchful eye of his father.
Tara RC was formed in 1980 and roundly set about pounding the opposition nationwide with an impressive line-up headed by the Kimmage brothers.
Also in the team were future Tour de France rider Laurence Roche and Rás winner Stephen Delaney and top international rider Gary Thomson.
Leading the group in the green of Ireland in the Phoenix Park at the conclusion of Rás 1984; yellow jersey and team mate Stephen Delaney in yellow.
As well as proving probably the best cyclocross rider in the country, even while still a junior, Raphael also enjoyed constant success on the road and he’d soon to go race in France with ACBB with his older brother.
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In the green of Ireland he was also now competing regularly with contemporaries such as Ian Chivers, Seamus Downey, Oliver McQuaid, Dave Gardiner, Philip Cassidy, John McQuaid, Anthony O’Gorman, Paul McCormack, Stephen Spratt, Cormac McCann, Aidan Harrison, Mick Kinsella and Bernie McCormack.
Kimmage was one of the leaders among his peers and when he wasn’t picked for the 1984 Sealink International stage race in Britain it made headlines in the newspapers of the day.
In 1982, and aged just 17 years, Raphael beat brother Paul, then 19 years old and already a seasoned international, to win the Tour of Ulster overall.
He was a little unlucky on the international scene as a junior, proving one of the star performers of the Isle of Man week, for example, but leaving winless after three 2nd places.
He was also named on the Olympic squad long list of 12 even though he was effectively only leaving the junior ranks.
The following year, 1983, he won the Shay Elliott Memorial and was 4th overall in Rás Tailteann, also winning the points classification.
He had won stage 6 of that Rás from Blarney to Carrick-On-Suir in 1983; his first year out of the junior ranks.
He also rode the Tour de l’Avenir that season and was selected for the Ireland team for the World Road Championships in Switzerland.
Before departing for the Worlds brothers Paul and Raphael would take a 1-2 in the Tour of Wicklow.
Racing cyclocross, and winning, in the Phoenix Park in 1986 a year after coming back from France to live and compete in Ireland again.
The following season it was Paul Kimmage who got the nod for the Los Angeles Olympics.
But while he was in the US preparing for that race his younger brothers – Raphael and Kevin – won the elite and junior events at the John Beggs Memorial in Bandbridge.
At that time soon-to-be-professional rider Paul and Raphael were among the very best elite rides in the country and future Rás winner Kevin was beating all-comers in the junior events; all while being schooled by their father.
In 1985 Raphael was on the Irish team for the first Nissan Classic, having come out of the Tour of Poland weeks earlier.
However, he told stickybottle in an interview four years ago that by the time he rode the Nissan he had returned from France and his pursuit of a pro career was over.
But he continued to race, with considerable success on the road and in cyclocross, at home for a number of years after effectively stepping away from life as a full time bike rider.
Irish cycling has lost one of the good guys this weekend; taken suddenly and far, far too soon.
Stickybottle would like to take this opportunity to extend our sympathies to the Kimmage family on the very sad passing of Raphael.
We are thinking at this time of Raphael’s wife Deborah, daughter Tara, and his three sons Seán, Ciarán and Dermot and his mam Angela as well as his brothers Paul, Christopher and Kevin. Raphael's father, Christy, sadly died four years ago.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.
- Funeral details will be available by viewing here.
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