"Essentially it's the same thing - it's the abuse of a TUE" - Kimmage on Froome

Paul Kimmage joined Joe Molloy for the Sunday Paper Review to give his take on the Chris Froome scandal as the Tour de France gets into gear.
Brought to you in association with ScrewFix Ireland

[@switch1237]

I love Paul Kimmage. He is unapologetically straight forward and honest. Cheers... from Portland, Oregon (USA).

[@jmcc2275]

Switch 123 marry him then.

[@rustydrog]

Kimmage is a national treasure.

[@rbenson321]

global treasure. :)

[@jmcc2275]

rustydrog ancient irrelevant treasure.

[@stephentuthill4598]

Totally agree with Kimmage... It can be done clean, if WADA and the UCI are tough on applying the rules as he says, with no excuses.

[@chrisbasis]

He and Walsh are great, fearless people.

[@PHRL85]

Anyone know the name of the documentary referred to early on in the clip?

[@livibam]

I don't believe it can be done clean. Not at the level and pace they're riding at.

[@pamazat]

Great journalism from Joe and Paul. Class act. On people having a go at Kimmage's 'darwnism' take - he is not saying that asthmatics and the like should not be able to enjoy cycling. This is just nonsense. He is just saying that people with asthma are just not able to compete at the very highest level of what is arguably the toughest competitive elite sport in human history, let alone dominate the way Froome does. Its just not possible and to do so would require cheating. Its just the way it is.

[@jmcc2275]

Peter V Kimmage is fool trying to make a quick buck.

[@TheMrbc74]

As a child I loved all sports because as a child your naive, you think the best person won, that all changed from 1988 now as an adult I’ve come to realise that professional sport is something completely different

[@ricofiori3327]

Froom's defense was two fold. 1. He had the money to retain the right law firm throughout. 2. He attacked the governing bodies on the objectivity of the rule on two counts: a. How do you know when too much of a substance is an advantage and b. How do you standardize the testing. In this case, there is no standard.

[@heliumtrophy]

While I enjoyed the tirade, the Darwinism on display was somewhat shocking. If you are equating the likes of Salbutamol on the same level as EPO, amphetamines and countless other drugs that have been used to get through the Tour de France (there was a case of cocaine being used back in 1909) then we are not going to get anywhere. That kind of elitism is going to harm any sport more than enhance it's appeal to anyone. Sure there are cases of abuse, and I don't buy Froome's defence but if there's one thing I will take from this is that he has been more open towards these cases than most - just look at the difference between his responses and his wannabe Modfather compatriot "Sir" Bradley Wiggins - someone who always wanted to profess that he was cleaner than clean. As much as the idea of running on "bread and water" for cycling 3500km over a couple of weeks is appealing, I just don't think it's possible. There will always be something or someone who will want to cheat the system. Cycling as a "sport" is doomed either way. There's no way we can ever believe a rider's speed and skill was done purely due to himself but whether he had a good medicine cabinet. I just wish the authorities called a spade, a spade and instead of calling it "an adverse analytical finding" just call it straight out and save us the torturous drawn out saga that we got. I will watch the Tour de France but if Froome wins, I can't say I will marvel at it.

[@evanodonnell9818]

Innocent until proven guilty is better than guilty until proven innocent

[@LeScandal]

evan o'donnell ...You probably thought Lance was innocent all the way up to the Oprah interview 🤣

[@evanodonnell9818]

Gotta Go I don't think froome is innocent but I rather a unpunished quilty cyclist than innocent punished one

[@LeScandal]

evan o'donnell I agree with you on that yet so few are innocent.

[@ivanboesky1520]

evan o'donnell He wasn't pronounced guilty until he tested double over the allowable limit moron! Then Sky laughably tried to start out by claiming it was the result of sudden kidney failure. Then they hired a bunch of multi million dollar lawyers to muddy the waters enough cast doubt on the test. Truth is using the ligic of the Sky legal team, literally every single test out there can have doubt cast upon it if you hire enough attorneys and pay enough "experts" to write 1500 page encyclopedias that prove nothing, but cast doubt on the test.

[@tomsoleymanbik3266]

Whilst Froome is the poster boy of the sport UCI does nothing until you retire. Example Lance Armstrong, Jan Ulrich. In the case of Floyd Landis he wasn't the poster boy and they fried his ads immediately.

[@gabrielforero9007]

Ullrich got kicked off the team the day before 2006 tour de france was supposed to start

[@philfortner1805]

How about the riders agree to go clean and the commentators agree to stop drinking coffee, smoking, and eating deep fried food. People need to realize their vices and get real.

[@goose6093]

no coffee on the team bus lol just bread and water then the guy says it can be done as he done it on a caffeine pill and a Vitim injection.

[@jmcc2275]

GOOSE !! 😂

[@dellerbeller]

The old guy at 13:04 - ''they have yet to establish a drug of any description that's going to help you win a golf tournament''. Kimmage then names a drug within a second and the old guy just rolls his eyes. The old guy is the absolute perfect example of someone who rails on athletics and cycling but when it comes to his own sport, doping doesn't exist and is not a problem. Delusional. That double-standard in reporting drives me ballistic.

[@dtmateo]

so if a rider crashes don't even give him pain relievers because who knows what performance gains they can get from aspirin. 😂😂😂 this guy is hilarious

[@LeScandal]

dtmateo ...I don’t think painkillers are the problem. Cycling is the WWF. 🤣

[@goose6093]

no coffee on the team bus lol just bread and water then the guy says it can be done as he done it on a caffeine pill and a Vitim injection.

[@dtmateo]

lol! if you time it properly, coffee is like an extra cog. i remember climbing a 12% grade and i thought i was in the wrong gear because it felt easier. then i remember i had strong coffee 😂😂😂

[@dr8278]

Great idea Paul! Let's discriminate against people who have medical conditions and stop them enjoying sport and then cycling can add another black mark against itself as well. Diabetics perform on TUEs but hey ho as you've just said, " no TUEs , you've got asthma tough, you're not gonna win the TDF that's the law of sport".

[@andrew7693]

I know! Let's not fight the good fight for better doping control infrastructure across all sports. Let's just take the easy road and keep all the sick people from enjoying sports! Great idea!!

[@cillian94]

Duncan Ross do you ever wonder how so many of the top cyclists have asthma?

[@dr8278]

No. And salbutomol isn't EPO and isn't going to win anyone a grand tour. This is not another Lance Armstrong situation. However I'm not naive . Sky didn't even attempt to defend the adverse finding for Froome and deep pockets and financial backing ensured the UCI and WADA testing process was exposed as being seriously flawed. A sad day for cycling. Of the 30-40% of riders who admit to doping only 1-2% are caught. Drug testing is not a definitive process..........

[@wareverwarever9200]

Duncan Ross actually when Injected it has radical effects by decreasing weight without loosing muscle mass or reducing its loss to a minimum. If you weren't so ignorant you'd also know that Injected salbutamol has no therapeutic effect on asthma. Final point, it is virtually Impossible to inhale that ammount of salbutamol with the purpuse froome indicates. He had to be dying to be that sick. Moreover, it would indicate uncontroled asthma. Would someone Race with uncontroled asthma? Ask yourself: does froome even have asthma? Get your head out of the sand otherwise go whatch sailor moon and get back to your fairy tales and unicorns.

[@dr8278]

Tiago Madeira first off learn to spell or don't comment because straight away you compromise your credibility . No one has implied Froome has injected anything , except you, not even the UCI or WADA! That's a massive accusation which you cannot possibly back up . When you've finished googling salbutomol for a second time come back to me with another libelous comment about Froome!

[@gobtv9459]

Kimmage ... all about Kimmage.

[@jackblack4513]

At last, I've looked for Paul to comment on these TUE's, I can't believe these crap commentators on eurosport/ITV4 who blab the biggest load of crap "fantastic performances" by SKY/INEOS, Michelson Scott and who else knows..?? (og, Serena williams has a TUE as well)

[@ybet1000]

Get the "rock" on the bike and the mic... No drugs on me .. if you smell what the rock is cooking .. he could give spectators the peoples elbow... could call the losers ... trailer park trash.. yeah .. yeah .. get the rock on a bike... get him answering the journalists questions..

[@fitzy4578]

How does a man who doped himself talk so passionately about guys who are yet to be caught? Bitter, bitter man

[@damnyankeefl]

What amphétamines once in an out of season ‘race’, yeah that’s the same thing,..

[@davidoneill3098]

You dont go from average to winning multiple tdf , same in every individual sport , he is doping absolutely no doubt , we all know it .( froome ) , team sky worse than all in history .

[@AlanPettifer]

Talk about drama queen.

[@LeScandal]

Alan Pettifer ...stick your head deeper in the sand and you won’t hear it.

[@ivanboesky1520]

Yeah, Froome, Sky, and Brailsford are the biggest drama queens in all of sport. Also the biggest drug cheats in any sport!

[@AlanPettifer]

Bob Gardner yes you are right of course, so best you get in touch with the UCI and WADA and the officials who administer the daily race doping tests and you tell them how wrong they are. By the way Bob, what team and rider do you support?

[@RichardSmith-mf9wy]

KImmage - the problem is the media and people like you in the Froome case. You know that the AAF was really non existent. Many athletes are booed and today before stage 2, there was in fact encouragement from the gathered crowd. As far as Froome and Sky are concerened, no one has been banned so be positive about the sport and stop detrpying it with your words. You have no monopoly on the truth.

[@karlmylnere5712]

The same old stuff from this guy . Former pro.rider , former doper , but of course it was.not his fault , he was forced into it , abdicates all responsibility for actions yet is so quick to condemn others , he has insisted , in the past that there should be a life ban for substance abuse , if that be.the case should he not himself be excluded from commenting or following races , at least his colleague mr Walsh has not actually taken the Stuff but frankly however right the crusade I am heartedly sick of the credence and air time given to these two Irish journalists.

[@ybet1000]

Landis? Landis is a snitch.. he cheated ...got caught.. so he pulled everyone and everything down with him...

[@cyczanin]

Not entirely true. He came clean. It was actually Tyler Hamilton's subpoena confession that did it. Snitching means something wrong. Yes, it harmed the sport massively, but was a good thing to do.

[@TheKevza]

Yep it's funny he likes landis cis he's gotten to know him. He's as big a fraud as Armstrong who he's obsessed with. Landis would've continued winning and doping had he not been caught also. There's no difference in the fact they both tried to gain an unnatural advantage.

[@jmcc2275]

Trying to make another quick buck Kimmage?

[@markanthony4302]

Your deluded if you don’t think all elite athletes use some kind of drugs to enhance performance in some way. There are worse offenders in tennis, football etc etc. The reason people boo team sky in France is the fact the team is English and is dominating the tour in their back garden. Would be a complete different scenario if this was team FDJ. Stop being a hater towards our great sport.

[@ivanboesky1520]

Mark Rakocevic Yeah, Armstrong fans used to say the exact same thing about french fans and the American USPS team for years dope. Stay gullble and stupid. LOL