Paul Kimmage has linked Irish youth riders taking caffeine to the example set by pro athletes. And he has, strangely, criticised Nicolas Roche in the process.
Paul Kimmage has said the fact two Irish youth riders required medical treatment after suffering adverse reactions to caffeine products they had consumed reflected a "disturbing" culture in cycling.
In support of his contention cycling was still a sport in trouble, he referenced the discovery of a hidden motor at the World Cyclocross Championships, the deaths of several pro riders in recent races, continued positive drug tests and the book released by Danilo di Luca in which he outlined a career of drug use.
Against all of that, Kimmage suggested in his Sunday Independent column he was disappointed that none of those incidents had been mentioned by Nicolas Roche in his Giro Diary column in the Irish Independent, adding “one third” of Roche’s team had asthma.
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Kimmage's Sunday Independent piece in full:
He believed when riders used pills – even ones not banned – and applied for exemptions to use otherwise banned products, ostensibly to treat ailments, it was not surprising to see some young riders following that culture and using caffeine.
Kimmage’s linking of the caffeine incidents in Irish youth racing with cycling and other pro sports becoming increasingly medicalised will ring true with many.
However, his bringing Roche into his point seems unfair as Roche’s column is intended to document his racing day.
Roche has also spoken about drugs in the past many times, including in interviews with Kimmage and on the Prime Time TV programme on RTE at the time the USADA reasoned decision on Lance Armstrong.
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That fact was not mentioned by Kimmage who, despite being a sports journalist with a special interest in cycling, has not written on all the cases he berates Roche for missing.
Kimmage said in his column yesterday that he himself had used caffeine. And though not a banned substance, then or now, he looked back on his actions with serious concern.
“In July of '86, on the stage to Alp d'Huez during my first Tour de France, I reached into my pocket for a caffeine tablet,” he wrote in his column.
“The dosage was minimal; I wasn't breaking any rules but knew I was crossing the line.
He continued: “We started taking caffeine in suppositories. Oh boy, that was fun!
“Believe me, you haven't lived until you've shoved a bullet up your hole at 30-miles-an-hour and realised a moment later that you've used the same hand to feed yourself.
“So I smile when I hear about rugby and football players routinely popping pills and taking cortisone and professing to be clean.
“And I smile when I hear about tennis players with heart problems and runners with dodgy thyroids and cyclists with chest infections winning on TUEs (therapeutic use exemptions).
“And I smile when I hear managers complaining about dope controls and rowers who should know better protesting: "What is dirty? Where do you draw the line?"
“Because the problem with that mentality is that you'll open your paper one day and find that some 14-year-old kid who has been following your creed has been hospitalised and is seriously ill.”
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