Former UCI president Pat McQuaid says there are quite a few things he’d have done differently if he could turn back the clock. But he defended his reputation and his contribution to combating doping.
By Brian Canty
Former UCI president Pat McQuaid said his failure to secure the Irish nomination to contest the 2013 election to become president for another term still galls him.
Though he subsequently managed to secure a nomination to run from other countries, the Dubliner was ousted by Brian Cookson following months of bitter disputes.
When questioned on the subject at the An Post Chainreaction team training camp in Calpe, Spain, McQuaid refused to be drawn on how his successor was performing since taking office 16 months ago.
“That’s not something I really want to comment on,” offered McQuaid.
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“I know a lot of what’s going on and I’ve had a lot of contact from people on the inside and as I say I’d prefer to say nothing.”
Brian Cookson replaced McQuaid as UCI President in September 2013 but the latter says there’s been nothing new in terms of anti-doping procedures from the governing body since then.
An EGM held in June of 2013 saw McQuaid fail to get the backing of his home federation.
The board of Cycling Ireland initially backed him, but it botched its meeting when it did not following proper procedure.
And with pressure building from within sections of the cycling community, it was forced to put the vote to an EGM.
What followed was what McQuaid describes as “a lot of shit and underhand tactics” by the opposition.
“You’d have to say it was galling alright not to get that nomination,” he lamented.
“But I’ve taken knocks before. You can’t be involved in the sport like this in Ireland; doing different projects and different things like I was...”
McQuaid with Sean Kelly at last week's An Post-Chainreaction training camp in Calpe, Spain, last week (Joolze Dymond-An Post-CRC)
“Often (I was) doing things which were way beyond what other people will do (and not get criticism –Ed),” he added in reference to how he felt he had been treated by a people and a sport he felt he had done much for.
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“To bring the Nissan Classic into Ireland and bring the best pros in the world here at that time of the year… to bring the Tour de France into Ireland; they were big visions, big dream projects and I managed to pull them off.
“You get a certain amount of begrudgery because of that and I’ve always known about Irish begrudgery and the family have as well.
“The amount of work we did, not just me but other members of my family; the amount of work we’ve done going back over the years, my father and my uncle included, to promote and develop Irish cycling is enormous.
“And what galls me is a lot of the people who were so critical are people who have never as much as stood on the corner with a red flag on a Tuesday night for a club race.
McQuaid was a top domestic rider in his day, winning the Tour of Ireland and the national championships among many other events.
“And yet they’re bashing away, some of them regarded as world voices on cycling.”
Asked what he’d change now if he could turn back the clock he said: “There’s quite a few things you’d do differently of course, yeah.
“I couldn’t change myself, I couldn’t change my character, I couldn’t change my approach to the job.
“I couldn’t change at times that I would be quite forthright and say what I thought.
“But maybe I could have been a little more political and not rocked the boat so much... but that’s my nature and that’s the way I am.
“If I felt something needed to be said I said it. And the doping, specifically; I probably didn’t get a lot of the credit for the amount of change that happened during the eight years while I was UCI president.
McQuaid in his days managing the Irish Olympic team with then international rider Paul Kimmage, who has become his nemesis in recent years.
“Taking an anti-doping budget that I inherited which was about €300,000 a year and in the end when I left it was €14.5 million.
“There was a huge amount of new rules and regulations and every possible thing we could do to combat doping we did; so much so that if you examine the situation 18 months after I’ve been out of the job and going into the second season there’s no new rules have been introduced in anti-doping.”
We will have an exclusive interview with McQuaid in the coming days where he speaks about what he is doing with himself now.
He also outlines his plans for the future, what he did for Ireland while he was UCI president, what he makes of the Astana positive tests and what Ireland can do to capitalise on the bike boom.
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