Listen to the full interview via the podcast.
On Monday July 28th, a new documentary Rough Rider will go to air on RTE One.
Directed by Adrian McCarthy and featuring author, journalist and former cyclist Paul Kimmage, it will lift the lid on how the latter's fight to expose doping affected his life and career.
Tonight on Off The Ball, we spoke to both Kimmage and McCarthy about the making of the film.
Kimmage's time covering last year's Tour de France forms the backbone of the movie as both men traveled around France in a camper van and they spoke about the stresses and strains of making the documentary
"I only spat the dummy out once and that was just before Alpe d'Huez which was just madness! Insane," said Kimmage.
"People will look at that and think this guy is insane. What's wrong with him? I'm not sure whether the madness of trying to take a camper van up on the morning of the stage with 500,000 people up there and all of them trying to get up this road at the same time, and me worrying about the clutch burning out and a camper van laden down with gear...the stress of that alone was enough to push me over the edge."
He also explained why he decided to take part in the documentary and what he feels sets him apart from other cycling journalists.
He also spoke about the strong emotions brought about by passing a shrine to late cyclist Tom Simpson at the top of Mont Ventoux in the Alps (Simpson died on his way up the mountain during the 1967 tour and was found with amphetamines in his back pocket).
"We rode up to the top and we were coming back down and we saw all the people stop by the side of the road at the Simpson memorial and looking at this and thinking what's going on here? There's veneration of someone who died through drugs because of doping and there's this shrine they've erected to him. What about all the other 40, 50 kids who died because of doping and because of what this sport did to them. Where's the Pat McQuaids, the Hein Verbruggens and all these people erecting temples for them or paying them any respect? It doesn't happen!" said Kimmage.
He also spoke about his interview with 2013 Tour winner Chris Froome and thought it was "fantastic that he was so honest" but also "felt that other answers that he gave that still left me with doubts in mind".
He also emphasized that he is "not an arbiter of who is clean and who is doping".
But he also feels it is "absurd" that the scrutiny over doping is not on the agenda in other sports such as football.
"I'm watching the World Cup and I'm watching a team in the World Cup and I see a doctor who was in my room in 1989 shoving syringes around and I'm thinking: 'hold on a second, how does this work?' If this guy was in my room in 1989 and he's here working at the World Cup and nobody is asking questions of this football team? How does that work? It's never on the agenda in football or tennis."
Kimmage also admitted that he can come across as an angry man but hopes the film can dispel that myth. He also believes that Lance Armstrong's only regret was that he got caught and that he finds it "incomprehensible" that Emma O'Reilly has chosen to forgive the disgraced former cyclist.
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