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With a long and deep shared history, might the battle between Paul Kimmage and Pat McQuaid be counterproductive, asks stickybottle columnist Barry Meehan
Pat McQuaid, as president of the UCI, is one of the most powerful men in world cycling. Paul Kimmage is the crusading journalist who has dedicated his life’s work to exposing the cheats within the sport.
Both men are from the greater Dublin area. Both grew up in homes obsessed with cycling and both have loved the sport from a young age.
The McQuaid and Kimmage families are among the best known cycling families in Ireland. Their fathers raced against each other; Pat being older did not race against Paul but their brothers raced against each other at the highest level.
For many years there was a Kimmage or a McQuaid on virtually every Irish national cycling team. In 1991 Paul’s brother Kevin - aka ‘Jacko’ - won the Rás and in 1995 Pat’s brother Paul also won Ireland’s greatest race.
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When Paul Kimmage achieved Ireland’s best ever placing at the amateur World Championships by finishing 6th in 1985 the Irish team manager on the day was one Pat McQuaid.
From then on their paths diverged.
Kimmage became a pro and was one of the ‘Fab Four’. Kelly, Roche, Earley and Kimmage were the heroes of a generation of young Irish cycling fans.
What they were achieving on the Continent was incredible. But it wasn’t until the Nissan Classic showcased their talent on Irish soil that they were fully appreciated in their homeland.
The ‘Nissan’ gave young Irish fans access to these new found heroes and a whole generation was inspired to get out on their bikes and try to follow in the wheel tracks of the ‘Fab four’. The main man behind the Nissan Classic was Pat McQuaid.
It wasn’t the only time he managed to bring cycling’s elite level riders to our shores. He was also responsible for securing the start of the 1998 Tour de France on Irish soil.
For teenagers who were inspired to take up cycling, often they pretended to be one of their heroes.
On the road from Carrick to Clonmel you were Kelly in Time Trial mode. An imaginary Jimmy McGee was commentating in your ear as Bonnie Tyler sang in the background. Up around the hairpin bend on the mountain road you were Roche coming into view on La Plagne with Phil Liggett getting all excited.
At the end of a spin lashing around the corners on the way back into town you were Earley taking the final corner on the way to a Tour stage win in Pau. On Sunday when you were hanging on for dear life on the spin around Ballymac, needing to dig a little deeper to fight to hold the wheel in front, you were Kimmage. But you always made it back into Carrick in the group.
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The Irish have a potentially huge role to play in rebuilding cycling after the current turmoil. But they will have to get over the nation’s other favourite pass-time of fighting amongst themselves first.
Many Irish pubs have a snug. A small area with access to the bar but separated from the rest of the pub by frosted glass. Many a priest has heard confession in the snug and many a barman has heard a whole lot more.
There is no surveillance device known to man that can pick up on conversations that take place in a snug. Perhaps Paul Kimmage and Pat McQuaid should meet up for a few pints in a snug.
With no lawyers or hurlers on the ditch around they might be able to have an open and frank conversation over a feed of pints.
Meeting over breakfast the following morning could be the decisive moment. If Pat were to ask Paul to become his vice president at the UCI in charge of anti-doping a whole new era for cycling could begin. Pat, who has made mistakes in the past, has all the connections and handles the political side of cycling.
But Paul could be the vicious anti doping terrier who would have any cyclist considering doping shaking in their Northwave shoes. It would also be the ultimate way for cycling to regain some credibility with the general public.
Last Sunday out on a three-hour spin in a group of almost 50 it was noticeable how little talk there was of Armstrong, McQuaid or Kimmage. The general cycling public just want to get out and enjoy riding their bikes.
When I got home, after a nice dinner that Ciara cooked, I threw myself down on the couch only to be assaulted by two kids and a dog. And I was happy out. Then I casually picked up my phone and flicked around various sites reading about claims and counter claims and a thought struck me.
Neither Paul Kimmage nor Pat McQuaid could have been relaxed and at ease with an easy mind last Sunday.
Back when we were pretending to be our heroes out on the road it made you go faster. Having the right frame of mind pushed you on but there was a reverse side too. I remember one day going up Knocklofty Hill I began to think about the 200 lines of ‘I must not fly paper aeroplanes in class’ that I had to do when I got home and I hadn’t even made the bloody thing.
Suddenly the power went from my legs and I really struggled to make it to the top of the hill.
British Cycling and their sports psychiatrist Steve Peters understand all about the effects of how the mind works on producing results in races.
If the two main protagonists in cycling are focussing their efforts in a battle with each other, the whole sport can only suffer as a consequence.
Imagine if Pat McQuaid and Paul Kimmage could settle their differences over a pint rather than in a court room and then work together. How much could be accomplished by these two men who deep down really do love the sport of cycling?
As for David Walsh, who has also done huge work in exposing drug cheats in cycling, there are many other sports that really need his passion for exposing the truth to be focussed on them and it would be greedy of cycling to try to hang on to him too.
Barry
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