Ray Kimmage dishes out the pain going up the Wicklow Gap in a blistering hot day wearing 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)
By Brian Canty
Raphael Kimmage was part of a four-strong Irish team at the inaugural Nissan Classic in 1985; a race that celebrated its 30th anniversary in September.
The brother of well-known journalist and author Paul was in the national squad alongside Stephen Spratt, Ian Chivers and Michael Kinsella.
And though his memories are sketchy, a few moments in the week have never left him.
“Jaysus is it 30 years ago?” he asks when contacted by stickybottle. “I don’t have a lot of memories to be honest, other than I think I rode Okay.
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“What happened was; I was pursuing a pro career but my last big one was the Tour of Poland a month earlier in August.
“The Nissan was kind of my goodbye race and I hadn’t trained very much after Poland. I went working for my father after it so my form wasn’t great.
“If I came into the race straight after Poland I would have kicked ass because I was in good shape,” he added.
The first day, Kimmage missed a key move that went clear; one that put 10 minutes into the bunch.
“I missed out on that but I remember the second stage was Wexford to Carrick on Suir and I thought I was feeling alright until I hit the base of Seskin Hill and the lights just went out.
“I was screwed but I gave myself a talking to at the top afterwards.”
Kimmage recalls the divide between the professional riders and the amateurs as something he absolutely hated.
He despised the attitudes of some who sneered at the likes of himself, blaming them for crashes and insulting them if they tried to move up or get in on a lineout.
“The big thing with them; it was like WWF wrestling, they were all about the big show; ‘oh let’s get the pros over’.
“And I remember the speed would be absolutely crazy in the last hour or hour and a half.
“It was the just savage, I’d ridden faster in the Nissan than I ever did at the World Championships.”
The week wore on and the amateurs got worn out, though Kimmage dug as deep as he possibly could to stay in touch.
“I did a decent ride into Cork later in the week,” he reflected. “Before we hit Cork I went back to get (Ian) Chivers to help get him back on.
“I was tired from that but we went into Glanmire, took a right turn and up this Lord merciful climb to Mayfield.
“I sprinted up and got to the top but the speed down the other side... I’d never witnessed anything like it.
“We would've come down by Patrick’s Hill and that was savage.
“You went right up this climb, but before it you'd take a 90-degree right-hander and your elbow was nearly touching the road. I’ll never forget that.
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“From what I recall the crowds were massive but when you’re riding your rocks off you don’t see them. You get to the top bollixed and then the pace just goes up!”
Stephen Roche won the stage, one Kimmage said was the “worst of all”, though the amateur from north Dublin still finished in the top 20.
Though he enjoyed the experience, racing against pros wasn’t so much fun.
“I liked it but riding against pros was hard,” Kimmage said in his matter of fact style.
“They were bloody hard races and they did this every day of the week while I’d made a decision I didn’t want to do it.
“Aside from them being strong any crash was always the amateurs, they said. The pros never caused any crashes.”
And but for a mishap, his own brother Paul might have been there to contest it.
“Paul would have done well but for his crash a week earlier in the GP d'Isbergues.
“I rode that race with Paul; I was in the group when he crashed and he must have went about 10 feet into the air.
“We got to the top of this climb and we were descending and next thing I see Paul 10 feet in the air. It was horrible.
“He was very close to being paralysed but he was going so well at the time, he was screaming.
“He came out of Poland, went into a race in Normandy and I think he won two stages.”
In his absence, Kelly and Roche pretty much animated that first Nissan Classic from an Irish perspective.
And Ray Kimmage has some painful memories of trying to keep touch with them.
“I’ll never forget Roche going by me once up around Galway, I was on a 53x13 and he said ‘Jaysus Kimmage would ya get off that gear!’ He was some boy for spinning the gear.
“That stage he won into Limerick when he jumped off the front; we were fair horsing it at the time and he jumps away to win.
“Kelly was the same. The one thing about Kelly; before the finish into Carrick he’s joking away with guys having the craic.
“But with around an hour to go I went up to him and he totally ignored me! He was in the zone.
“You could have called him the greatest tramp in the world and he wouldn’t turn his head.”
Kimmage only rode the race once and stopped racing seriously after it. And like brother Paul, he doesn’t mince his words on some of the things he saw.
“There was some dodgy stuff going on there I tell you,” he said of his ride in the Nissan. I don’t even know if there was dope testing. I couldn’t even be 100 per cent sure.
“But there were a lot of glassy eyed guys going around the place and the speed in the last hour; I’ve never witnessed anything like it.”
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