Kieron McQuaid, right, believes the Cycling Ireland EGM on his brother and UCI president Pat McQuaid, left, raises a number of issues.
Following last Saturday’s Cycling Ireland EGM in Dublin where delegates voted against nominating UCI president Pat McQuaid to run for a third term in office, stickybottle carried a news report on the meeting. A second analysis piece also included the detail of the debate; who had spoken for or against the motion and what they had said about Pat McQuaid and the UCI.
The analysis segment of that story suggested the McQuaid family was the biggest and best known in the history of Irish cycling, but had drifted from the home scene in recent years towards international work in the sport. We suggested that drift meant the family had less influence domestically than at different times in recent decades, which we believed had cost Pat McQuaid electorally on the day.
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At the meeting was Kieron McQuaid, pictured above. He raced for almost 20 years, won the Star Trophy classic league twice and represented Ireland at the 1972 Olympics before going on to manage other riders for many years and earning his living as a bicycle wholesaler based in Co Wicklow.
He is also the eldest brother of the UCI president and says he observed last Saturday’s meeting with interest and also read our coverage. While taking no issue with our examination of the facts or his family links, he feels the outcome of last weekend’s meeting and the manner in which the EGM unfolded raised a number of issues for Irish cycling. In this letter to stickybottle, which he has agreed we may publish, he outlines some of those concerns and warns those who want his brother gone from the UCI that they should be careful what they wish for.
I have stayed out of matters to do with my brother Pat and the UCI presidency until now.
Maybe it's time to give my point of view. And I am pretty sure I represent the rest of the McQuaid family.
I have kept abreast of the ongoing situation, mostly through Stickybottle and Cyclingnews.
I don't, and won't, do either Facebook or Twitter. My opinion on those whose lives are run through these social media forums is best kept to myself.
I read with interest stickybottle’s article on the McQuaid family's fading influence on Irish cycling, which you published after last Saturday’s Cycling Ireland EGM. There wasn’t much in it I could argue with.
One of the issues raised in that story related to whether we as a family had or hadn’t contacted people by phone in the lead up to the vote to get more clubs out to support Pat’s nomination; let me address that.
Being Pat’s brother, if I had started a campaign of phoning people to drum up supportg I felt that would have over-politicised the situation, and left us open to charges of trying to pressure people. I stayed away from it. In hindsight this was a mistake and I regret not going down that route.
I do however think that there is another point to be made on last Saturday's EGM, which I attended. I felt 60 clubs out of a possible 252 was a very disappointing turnout.
Obviously, it was a case of people voting either ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the proposal so there were two factions in the room.
And your breakdown on the "old guard" voting for Pat, and the "newbies" voting against him, was pretty accurate. But, this raises other concerns.
The "old guard" were all faces I recognised from my days racing and managing teams, from far and wide throughout the country; people steeped in cycle racing, which like it or not, is the mainstay of the sport.
They travelled from as far away as Donegal, Kerry, Cork, Down, Louth, Tipperary, Meath, Kildare, to name just some of those I noticed, to support Pat's nomination.
These are the people the sport depends on to exist. The motion was defeated by people who know more about the ins and outs of social media and its influences than they do about running cycling; either in this country or internationally.
Were we to lose from the sport those people who voted for the motion, there wouldn’t be a sport. They are the people with the drive, passion and enthusiasm required for the sport of competitive cycling to continue and to thrive.
They are the people without whom I couldn’t have raced all those years ago and without whom some of the people I raced with are still competing into their 60s and even 70s.
I was in Villach when Stephen Roche became World Champion in 1987 and in Valkenburg when Mark Scanlon won the junior title. And should Dan Martin win later this year in Florence, I will be there too.
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Our federation has to work very hard to get riders into enough quality events in order to qualify our allocation. Riders need races. The clubs named in the stickybottle EGM news report as voting against Pat last weekend - St Tiernan's, Dublin University CC, Chain Gang CC – don’t run open races. So we would not want to depend on them for inspiration or commitment to the cause.
And, if we were to believe the prophets of doom on the web, cycling is three quarters way down a dark hole and is about to vanish. And they would have us believe the sport will vanish if they don't receive Pat's head on a silver platter soon.
I was at the start of the Giro last month in Naples and the crowds were massive, as they were at the Olympics in London, and always are at the Tour de France.
The Giro is coming to Ireland, both north and south, next year. Our country will benefit from TV exposure worldwide; that kind of coverage you can’t buy. And I feel pretty sure that the crowds will be massive there too. The number of licence holders at home has never been bigger.
So as far as I am concerned, the rumours of the demise of cycling are greatly exaggerated.
I know the world has changed and the internet is of huge importance. God be with the days when I bought The Irish Times on a Monday and could depend on Jim McArdle to inform me in detail about what happened in the races run around the country that weekend.
These days, it annoys me that where once we were known as a country that could produce successful cyclists, now we are known as a country that can produce successful journalists who make a nice living from bringing our sport down.
Pity, in my view, they don't put some effort into other sports that keep their doping problems quiet in case bad publicity might harm their profile. The media is being heavily influenced by too much negative publicity for our sport.
On my drive home to Wicklow Town after the EGM last Saturday, I heard Paul Kimmage being allowed to express, unchallenged, his "utter contempt" for the 74 people who voted for the motion.
So, Mr Kimmage feels so empowered now by his own media profile that we are not even allowed to have an opinion if it differs from his. And he is let away with this on a national radio station, Newstalk.
I was deeply saddened that this is where cycling has arrived. Cycling has in the past 10 years, without any doubt, done more in the fight against doping than any other sport. And Pat has been at the helm throughout that time.
In 2012 the UCI carried out over 3,500 out of competition drug tests. Professional tennis, a big money sport, with a huge worldwide TV audience, carried out 11. Some of the very biggest names at the top of tennis were not tested even once last year, despite others in the sport saying there should be testing.
Finally, let me say this. When Pat took this job of UCI president on, I thought he was crazy and told him so. I wouldn’t have taken it for any price.
He was always going to be in a no-win situation, mostly because of the changed face of modern life and the influence of the internet. He has not done a perfect job, and has his faults. Don't we all.
Do any of the G8 leaders who were in Enniskillen this week do a perfect job?
But it is so easy to sit at a keyboard and criticise, especially when you can do so under a pseudonym.
It takes a man with a big heart, plenty of vision and a big pair of shoulders to take on the job of UCI president. As of yet, I have not seen anyone proposed who I think would be able to do a better job than my brother.
He is the eldest of a family of 10 children. I am the second eldest. We didn’t always get on. Our personalities are different. I can say, however, that I am very proud of the fact that someone from Irish cycling has risen to the top of the world cycling organisation, and that he is my brother.
Maybe we should have expected this to happen. We are, after all, known as a nation of begrudgers.
Personally, if I was him I would throw the keys of the office back to Cookson or even Makarov, both of whom come to the table with huge connections with two ProTour teams, which Pat never had.
Have a look at the mess Russian oligarchs have made in soccer, and start to imagine what will be done in cycling. And if that does happen what influence will Cillian Kelly, Conor McGrane or Anto Moran be able to bring bear on the matter? Absolutely none.
While we have an Irish UCI president, at least there is someone there that we could talk to. Maybe, lads, you need to sign up at your local college for Russian language lessons.
