Paul Kimmage was born in Dublin in 1962. A talented cyclist, he was a double National Road Race Champion and represented Ireland at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984.
A year later, he finished sixth in the World Road Race Championships in Italy and in 1986 he turned professional and completed his first Tour de France.
In 1990 he became a journalist. A former ‘Sportswriter of the Year’ in Ireland, he was short-listed five times for ‘Sportswriter of the Year’ in Britain and is a five- time winner of ‘Sports Interviewer of the Year’ at the British Sports Journalists’ Association awards.
He has written for the Sunday Tribune, the Sunday Independent, The Sunday Times, the Observer and the Daily Mail. He has also presented a sports magazine programme for Setanta TV and was an analyst for Al Jazeera TV during 2012 London Olympics.
His first book, Rough Ride, is widely acknowledged to be the most honest account of life in the professional ranks and won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award in 1990. In 2000, he was shortlisted for the same award with ‘Full Time: The Secret life of Tony Cascarino.’ In 2011, his fourth book, ‘Engage: The Fall and Rise of Matt Hampson’, was the British Sports Book of the Year and the William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year.