Lance Armstrong on stage in the RDS, Dublin, in 2009 the day after he rode the Tour of Ireland. How he came to ride the race features heavily in the Cycling Independent Reform Commission report on doping in cycling.
Pat McQuaid has vehemently denied there was any link between the UCI allowing Lance Armstrong return to the sport early in 2009 to ride the Tour Down Under and the disgraced American agreeing to ride the Tour of Ireland.
An appearance fee of $1 million was paid to him for the Tour Down Under. No fee was sought for appearing at the Tour of Ireland.
The allegation that Armstrong's early return was linked to his agreeing to ride the Tour of Ireland was made in a dossier compiled by UCI Management Committee members Igor Makarov and Mike Plant.
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It was leaked during the UCI presidential election in 2013.
The Cycling Independent Reform Commission examined the allegations and dealt with them at length in its report published by the UCI in the early hours of this morning.
Alan Rushton was a main player behind the Tour of Ireland and worked with Pat McQuaid as a business partner in the past.
Tour of Ireland
The report found that Pat McQuaid did a U-turn, which came as a surprise to staff at the UCI, to allow Armstrong return to competition early in 2009.
He was permitted to race again some 13 days before the expiry of his pre-competition period in the anti doping programme, which is a requirement for returning athletes.
The report said there was no evidence of any agreement between McQuaid and Armstrong around the latter riding the Tour of Ireland.
However, it concluded there was a link between the “sudden U-turn” in allowing the American return early for the Tour Down Under and his agreeing to ride the Tour of Ireland, which was being organised by McQuaid’s brother Darach and Alan Rushton.
Rushton is McQuaid’s former business partner.
Pat McQuaid said his brother Darach, above, was in talks with Lance Armstrong about riding the 2009 Tour of Ireland long before the UCI deliberated on allowing the American return to racing before his set period in the anti doping programme had run its course.
This morning on RTE Radio 1's Morning Ireland programme, broadcaster Gavin Jennings asked McQuaid why Armstrong was allowed to return early for the Tour Down Under in January 2009.
“We allowed him in after a meeting that took place internally in the UCI, where we discussed the fact that he had been in the biological passport (programme) for over five months at that stage," McQuaid said.
“The anti doping people told me his (blood - Ed) levels were the very same levels as anyone else that would be in the passport (programme).
“The UCI had already decided to change that rule and my legal people told me; you know, it’s a choice, it’s a bit ridiculous if he doesn’t ride it because he is the same as everybody else.
“And that was the reason we allowed him to ride. And that was the only reason we allowed him to ride.
“There was absolutely no connection with the Tour of Ireland and the commission states that in the report; that there was no link between Lance riding the Tour Down Under and the Tour of Ireland.”
What the CIRC report says
The CIRC report deals comprehensively with the UCI deciding to allow Armstrong return 13 days early so he could ride the Tour Down Under and Armstrong agreeing at the same time to ride the Tour of Ireland.
Stickybottle published a story earlier on this issue, which can be accessed here.
In one section, the CIRC report says that on October 6th, 2008, a letter was sent by the UCI to the Armstrong camp.
It informed them the rider would not be eligible to rider the Tour Down Under the following January because he would not have served sufficient time in the anti doping programme by the time the race was run.
In that correspondence McQuaid stated that if Armstrong was going to return to cycling, he must accept the rules of the sport.
The CIRC report then goes on to refer to other correspondence sent on the same day and it concludes Armstrong's early return was indeed linked to him agreeing to ride the Tour of Ireland, a scenario denied by Pat McQuaid.
The report says on the issue:
“On 6 October 2008, Lance Armstrong confirmed to Pat McQuaid that he had decided to participate in the Tour of Ireland. Sources and documentation available to UCI show that this decision was linked to the decision of Pat McQuaid to let him race in Australia.
“The last time Lance Armstrong participated in the Tour of Ireland was in 1992. That same day, Pat McQuaid advised his brother, Darach McQuaid who was the Project Director of the Tour of Ireland that Lance Armstrong wanted to come to Ireland.
“Darach McQuaid responded a few hours later that he already had the wheels in motion for letters to the high-level Irish personalities interested in helping.
“Late on 6 October 2008, a letter was sent from Lance Armstrong to Pat McQuaid asking him “to consider an exemption from a strict interpretation of Article 77” and outlining several reasons that he considered outweighed the need for strict adherence to article 77.
“On 8 October 2008, Lance Armstrong and the organisers of the Tour Down Under were officially informed by Pat McQuaid that Lance Armstrong was allowed to participate in the Tour Down Under.”
Livestrong conference in Dublin
Pat McQuaid made further comments this morning about how Armstrong came to race in an event being organised by his, McQuaid's, brother.
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And he insisted Darach McQuaid's dealings with Armstrong on riding the race were completely separate to, and independent of, Armstrong being allowed to return to racing early to ride the Tour Down Under.
“The fact is that my brother Darach was dealing with Lance Armstrong in a separate way for a lot longer and earlier than that," he said.
"(He was) working with him in bringing a big cancer seminar into Ireland which he did, where he brought something like 500 people into Ireland for three days in the RDS for a cancer seminar. That was all done by my brother Darach, completely independent of me.”
The conference McQuaid refers to was the Livestrong organisation that Armstrong had established in the fight against cancer and which has since distanced itself from him.
The CIRC also deals specifically with the holding of the Livestrong conference in Dublin in August 2009, starting as it did the day after the three-day Tour of Ireland ended.
The report states:
“According to documents in the CIRC’s possession and confirmed by interviewees, Lance Armstrong’s decision to have his Livestrong summit in Dublin was made after his decision to compete in the Tour of Ireland as an excuse to explain why he was riding the Tour of Ireland.
“It would otherwise have made no sense for Lance Armstrong to take part in the Tour of Ireland for free. Lance Armstrong’s participation made a huge difference to such a small race, particularly when big races were ready to pay around a million dollars to get him to participate.”
A young Mark Cavendish sprints in to win stage 2 of the Tour of Ireland into Killarney, Co Kerry, back in 2009.
Pat McQuaid cleared of most serious allegations
The CIRC report clears Pat McQuaid of corruption, including the long running charge that Armstrong paid monies to the UCI to cover up positive doping tests.
The report was unequivocal in its conclusion that there was no evidence to support any such charge.
Indeed, it said the timeline of one payment was completely at odds with the charges levelled against the UCI leadership at the time.
But it said the organisation should have been more circumspect in its dealings with Armstrong, pointing out that as late as 2012 – when Pat McQuaid was still head of the organisation – that the UCI continued to defend him.
This included a threat to legally challenge USADA’s jurisdiction in the investigation that ultimately brought Armstrong down.
When asked by broadcaster Gavin Jennings on RTE Radio 1’s Morning Ireland programme this morning why he had defended and protected Armstrong, McQuaid said:
“It wasn’t a question of defending and protecting Lance Armstrong. It was a question that; we tested him and we tested him over 200 times and he never tested positive.
“You know, every police authority in the world knows whose committing the crimes but until they get evidence against them they can’t catch them.
“For me the important thing for this report, and it is, as you say, a landmark report; is that it was set up to look into allegations of corruption and wrongdoing and complicity in hiding doping cases within the UCI over that period.
“The report completely clears me of any corruption, any wrongdoing or any complicity in doping. And for me, that’s very, very important.
“It actually goes on to say, the report does; that from the time I was elected in 2005 the anti doping fight increased considerably with a lot of new tests brought into action, a lot of new strategies brought into action, with Ann Gripper who took over... the anti doping.
“It increased considerably and (the report says) the sport is in a lot better place than it was at that time.”
Protecting heroes and the sport's image
When asked about the charge in the report that the UCI moved to protect the sport’s image and its heroes and in doing so had undermined anti-doping efforts, McQuaid told RTE’s Morning Ireland programme:
“I can only speak for when I was president, when I was in charge. And I would refute all of that when I was in charge because when I took over as president of the UCI, one of my main aims was the fight against doping.
“Everybody knows that and everybody knows the work I have done in the fight against doping. And the UCI is now one of the leading international federations in the fight against doping. And the legacy I have left behind there; I am quite proud of.
“From my time as president of the UCI, I don’t accept any of that. And in actual fact the report doesn’t charge me with any of that during my time as president. It states in several places that from 2006-2007 onwards things changed and things improved.
“In relation to favouring riders or making decisions in relation to favouring... Again, it’s to do with the sport and you don’t favour particular riders; one rider over another.
"I never gave any riders any particular favours. They were all tested by the anti doping people, they were all in the biological passport.
“I introduced the passport so, you know; from that point of view everybody is in the same (situation).”
Conceded he made mistakes
McQuaid said he “absolutely, absolutely” rejected any suggestion he acted in any way that assisted Lance Armstrong to cheat his way to seven Tour de France wins, which he has now been stripped of.
“As well as everything else; hindsight is 20-20 vision,” McQuaid told RTE.
“There’s lots of decisions I took while I was UCI president of the UCI that now looking back on it, I would have done differently. I’m not going to name specific decisions.”
He rebuffed questions asking him to outline what those mistakes were, saying more time would be needed to explain them in full and set out the context of decisions.
When asked again what the mistakes he mentioned were, he said: “No I can’t tell you what they were because I haven’t sat down and written and thought about what they were at the moment.”
Asked could he name even one mistake he said “no, no,” at which point the interview ended.
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