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Kimmage did the square root of fuck all in exposing Armstrong. He happily followed on the coat tails of Damian Rinard, Pierre Ballester and David Walsh and his main contribution was to basically heckle Armstrong at a press conference before the Tour of California in 2009.
I said that Kimmage ensured light was cast on the issue, not that he exposed Armstrong. Even if that press conference was his only contribution (which it wasn't), I think it would be wrong to underestimate the impact of it. It took a lot of balls (no pun intended) to do that, at a time when most of the press were still cheer leading. The point of Kimmage is that he asks difficult questions in provocative ways, which generate coverage. Would you rather everyone towed the party line?
Personally, I think he is within reason to question Cookson's son working for Sky. The UCI should try and build a reputation that is beyond reproach and that can often only be achieved at some personal cost. In addition If Oli Cookson is so great at what he does, surely he would find employment with ease in a related field.
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McQuaid's got 'em
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I haven't got time just now to discuss this properly, will do so later, but Oli Cookson has been working for Sky for 3.5 years now, so way before his father became UCI President. If questions should've been asked, why wasn't Kimmage doing so then, when there was a much more glaring conflict of interest, i.e. Brian Cookson being on the board of the company that manages the Sky cycling team?
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See also 2011 article about which not a fuck was given
http://www.cyclesportmag.com/features/all-aboard-the-magic-bus/
While we wait, Oli Cookson gets chatting. Apropos of nothing in particular, he says: “I just wanted to say I didn’t get this job because of my dad.” His father is Brian Cookson, president of British Cycling and a board member of Tour Racing Limited, the company that owns Team Sky. “In fact, I nearly didn’t get the job because of who my dad is and how it might look.”
It’s a fair point. Last year, UK Sport and British Cycling commissioned the auditor, Deloitte, to examine the relationship between Team Sky and the national federation. Cookson previously worked as a landscape architect and urban designer in Madrid but spent some time on last year’s Tour with Sky. He fitted in well and then worked on the Vuelta a Espana, partly because he is fluent in Spanish. -
Didn't we have this chat last week?
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We did, but it has been reignited by Kimmage on twitter.
If Cookson got the job because he was the best candidate with the right skill set, it should be quite straightforward for him to get a job elsewhere in a related field. However, if they can demonstrate there is no conflict of interest (which should also be straightforward) then I don't think he should be hounded out of his job.
As to why Kimmage is asking questions now, perhaps it only recently came to his attention?
I can see both sides of the argument and on balance I think it is legitimate, but I also think it is reasonable to ask questions.
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We did, but it has been reignited by Kimmage on twitter.
If Cookson got the job because he was the best candidate with the right skill set, it should be quite straightforward for him to get a job elsewhere in a related field. However, if they can demonstrate there is no conflict of interest (which should also be straightforward) then I don't think he should be hounded out of his job.
**As to why Kimmage is asking questions now, perhaps it only recently came to his attention? **
I can see both sides of the argument and on balance I think it is legitimate, but I also think it is reasonable to ask questions.
He's an investigative journalist isn't he? Oli been at Sky for four years, Cookson president for six months, no need for Detective Poirot to find that one out, more like Inspector Clouseau. Sounds like someone's pointed out to him a fact that was glaringly obvious. Were we discussing it on this thread recently even? And yet he rears up on Twitter, surely one of the most facile of platforms for meaningful debate, and demanded the TRUTH and accused of cycling fans of having 'a la carte' principles because they didn't agree with him.
I have no problem with Kimmage's intentions, just question his methods. His extreme aggression at times is counter-productive, marginalising himself and making him look the angry village drunk, shouting obscenities while everyone else shakes their head. There was a particularly nasty exchange with Richard Moore I remember, and his trolling of Brailsford using EBH was in poor taste as well, to name but a couple.
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Kimmage and Jeez are one person?
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Poor dan martin
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Cheap Mavic tubular tyres over at Sigma Sport. You know. Because they are so grippy and that.
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enter code danmartin at the checkout for an extra 0% off
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We did, but it has been reignited by Kimmage on twitter.
If Cookson got the job because he was the best candidate with the right skill set, it should be quite straightforward for him to get a job elsewhere in a related field. However, if they can demonstrate there is no conflict of interest (which should also be straightforward) then I don't think he should be hounded out of his job.
As to why Kimmage is asking questions now, perhaps it only recently came to his attention?
I can see both sides of the argument and on balance I think it is legitimate, but I also think it is reasonable to ask questions.
I have no issue whatsoever with Kimmage, or any other journalist, raising legitimate questions about conflicts of interest or doping or any other topic. I've read a lot of Kimmage's work and still think he is an excellent journalist.
However, I think his activity on Twitter makes him look unprofessional. He engages with, and encourages, the worst of the cycling Twitterati and gets involved in their hysterical rants on doping. I have no doubt that doping is still an issue in pro cycling, but the shrill nature of the tweets of certain individuals, their complete lack of objectivity, their cherry picking of evidence and data and false and erroneous accusations are ridiculous.
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Cheap Mavic tubular tyres over at Sigma Sport. You know. Because they are so grippy and that.
I think Mavics are made by Vittoria (who themselves make some tubulars that try and kill you in the wet).
It's a bit embarrassing. It wasn't even whilst cornering.
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2014 Pro-cycling season thread
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No, Kimmage gave up that respect for me when he uses Twitter to rant and rave. There have been some very unpleasant exchanges on there with him at the centre.
My opinion.
Edit: and what Andy said