LeMond wants a cleaner sport and will run against Pat McQuaid for UCI president
The only American winner of the Tour de France, Greg LeMond has revealed he wants to be the next president of the UCI and will run for election against current president Pat McQuaid.
LeMond has been in London in recent days for a summit of the new Change Cycling Now group.
The 51-year-old has revealed in a French newspaper interview today that the group has asked him to run for the presidency and he has accepted the challenge.
“I'm ready; I was asked and I accepted,” LeMond said, adding that people who wanted change in the UCI had to act now.
“After the earthquake caused by the Armstrong case, another chance won’t arise. If we want to restore public confidence and sponsors, we must act quickly and decisively. Otherwise, cycling will die. Riders don’t understand that if we continue like this there will soon be no money in cycling.”
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Change Cycling Now is a new organisation established to try and bring about a cleaner sport. It counts some well known voices among its ranks, many of whom have cited the removal of Irishman McQuaid as one of their goals.
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It includes Irish journalists Paul Kimmage and David Walsh and is being led by Jaimie Fuller, the chairman of the Skins Australian clothing brand currently suing the UCI for $2 million for its alleged mismanagement of the doping issue in the sport.
The group also includes Dr Michael Ashenden and Antoine Vayer. Ashendon served on the UCI biological passport expert panel. Vayer is a professor in sports and education and has also been a strong voice against drugs in cycling.
Among some of the others on board are LeMond, former Cofidis manager Eric Boyer and Garmin-Sharp manager Jonathan Vaughters.
LeMond said today he believed McQuaid should resign. He also believed if he took over from the Irishman he would put an emphasis on more transparency and democracy in the UCI.
McQuaid is currently in his second four-year term as UCI president. That term expires next September, when he must run for office again. He has already decided he will run, with a spokesman for the UCI confirming that to stickybottle last week.
We also revealed recently that McQuaid wants Cycling Ireland to nomination him for re-election and has approached key people in the organisation in that regard.
Those approaches have been informal and Cycling Ireland is set to decide on the matter only after the UCI-commissioned review of the Lance Armstrong affair is published in next June.
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