Pat McQuaid chats to Alberto Contador at the World Championships in Valkenburg on Sunday
UCI president Pat McQuaid has today spoken out at what he believes is an unacceptable delay by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) in producing a copy of its full judgement against Lance Armstrong.
The judgement is effectively a written document outlining in detail the case against Armstrong upon which USADA found him guilty of drugs offences last month, banned him for life and stripped him of his results since 1998 including his seven Tour de France wins.
However, the case is still not finalised because USADA only has jurisdiction in the US, meaning it is the UCI that has to effectively enforce the judgement against Armstrong outside the US.
Armstrong has denied taking performance enhancing drugs and has also questioned USADA’s ability to ban him, insisting that he is not banned for life.
Advertisement
Today, Irishman McQuaid weighed in by issuing a statement after it emerged the USADA material would be delivered to the UCI by mid October and not the end of September as originally planned.
Related News
McQuaid said while the UCI had no reason to believe a complete file on Armstrong does not exist, USADA’s “repeated inability” to furnish details of the file and its decision to the UCI was “beginning to concern” the cycling world governing body.
"It's now more than one month (since) the USADA punished Lance Armstrong. We thought the USADA would have been better prepared before launching this process."
McQuaid also pointed to media reports that suggest the delay in delivering the decision had been brought about because USADA was continuing to gather evidence for its file against Armstrong.
"It seems that it would have been more useful for USADA to have used the time at its disposal during the Tour de France, the Olympic Games and the road championships to prepare a complete dossier rather than issue statements.”
"It is at very least unusual that USADA would still be gathering evidence against a person after it has found that person guilty."
“The UCI learned of reports of delays from the press, and not by an official communication from the USADA. The quicker the UCI receives the decision and the file the quicker it will be able to deliver its response.”
Topics
