Paul Kimmage has just published an excellent two-part podcast on his part in pursuing, and ultimately helping to bring down, Lance Armstrong and revealed in the broadcast that he contacted the American recently requesting an interview.
Armstrong, banned from pro cycling for life for doping, has replied publicly to the Irish journalist, and former Tour de France rider, in characteristically disparaging terms.
"Paul Kimmage, you're a ?, move on dude," he said on Twitter while sharing a screengrab of Kimmage's email with the interview request sent in August. Armstrong also tagged Kimmage by including his Twitter handle in his Tweet to his three million followers.
The last time Kimmage, who won 'sports journalist of the year' last week, and Armstrong were in the same room was at the now iconic press conference back in 2009 at the Tour of California, video below. Armstrong was coming back to the sport having retired four years earlier. Kimmage asked him about his public comments in support of Ivan Basso and Floyd Landis coming back to the sport after doping bans.
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Armstrong then took the microphone, launching into Kimmage and telling him "you're not worth the seat you're sitting on". He took umbrage with the fact Kimmage had described him one of his pieces as "the cancer" returning to the sport having been in remission during his near four-year retirement period.
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Kimmage tells the Irish Independent podcast - part 1 here and part 2 here - he had decided to contact Armstrong recently, 10 years on from his being banned from cycling for life, as the American had been on his mind. He also believed would make a "great interview" but he was not surprised he had received no reply.
Asked by podcast host Kevin Doyle what he would say to Armstrong, he replied: "I'd be more interested in listening to him. I would be absolutely fascinated to sit down opposite Lance and to listen to him."
He added when he interviewed Floyd Landis in 2011 (full transcript of interview here) they spoke for seven hours and it was "the greatest interview I've ever done".
"If you want to know the truth about cycling, you need to get that interview. I listened to Floyd and what I learned from Floyd was a really valuable lesson. It reminded me again that the real problem here wasn't Floyd and it wasn't Lance. It was a governing body (the UCI) that tries to be a regulator and a promoter at the same time. That doesn't work.
"When you have a governing body policing the sport and promoting the sport, that's a conflict of interest that would never work. And that's how it all happens, that's how Lance happened," said Kimmage.
He was referring to Armstrong's positive test in the 1999 Tour, on the way to his first win. The test result was allowed by the UCI to be explained by a backdated therapeutic use exemption for a cream containing corticosteroids, claiming the cream was being used to treat a saddle sore. It has since emerged Armstrong returned four such test results on the 1999 Tour.
Kimmage also speaks in the new podcast about the refusal of The Sunday Times to publish some of his columns about Armstrong, before losing his place at the newspaper and being out of work for a time, including when the American was banned for life and did a tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey. He was also sued by the UCI, which he speaks about in the podcast, and also discusses Bradley Wiggins recently appearing on Armstrong's podcast.
