Staying put? Will Pat McQuaid get a third term as UCI president next year?
Pat McQuaid is to put himself forward for a third term as UCI president when his current period in the post expires next year.
He has already made approaches to Cycling Ireland asking that the federation nominate him to run for the presidency of the world governing body again. It is anticipated that the organisation will nominate him to run.
No president of the UCI has ever failed to get his home federation to nominate him for election, meaning any failure on the part of McQuaid in that regard would be very embarrassing and potentially politically damaging.
Stickybottle understands from a number of reliable sources in the cycling community in Ireland that the approaches by McQuaid to Cycling Ireland have been at an informal level so far. However, he has unambiguously informed key people in the federation that he is running for office again and that he wants the nomination to come from Cycling Ireland.
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It nominated him when he went for election as president for the first time in 2005 and again nominated him when he successfully ran for his second term in 2009.
The UCI presidency runs for a four-year period and McQuaid’s current term at the helm ends next September, when he will be free to try for a third term. Sources within the UCI have confirmed to stickybottle that the Irishman will run for another term.
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The election will take place next September at the World Road Race Championships in Florence, Italy.
Some in the Irish cycling community will have reservations about Cycling Ireland nominating McQuaid, now aged 63 years, for the election because of the UCI’s handling of the Lance Armstrong affair and doping in general.
However, when the issue of Pat McQuaid’s tenure in charge of the UCI was raised at Cycling Ireland’s recent AGM in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, there was roughly a 50-50 split in the number of delegates who expressed reservations and those who spoke up for him.
Cycling Ireland recently issued a statement saying it saw nothing in the United States Anti Doping Agency report into the Lance Armstrong affair that would warrant it calling for McQuaid’s resignation.
When Dr Conor McGrane – the official doctor to Cycling Ireland – raised his concerns at the Cycling Ireland AGM about the UCI and tried to have an EGM called for a vote of no confidence in McQuaid, he was told he must gather the support of clubs for such a move.
Cycling Ireland is opposed to holding any vote of no confidence in McQuaid until after the publication next June of the report of the independent commission being established to examine the UCI’s role in the Lance Armstrong Affair.
However, with the UCI presidency election to take place in September and nominations due to be lodged by mid June, if Cycling Ireland is to nominate McQuaid – which appears likely – it will have nominated him long before any EGM could be organised after the publication of the report of the independent commission in June.
Even if an EGM were organised it is unclear whether a vote of no confidence would have sufficient support to be passed.
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