Brian Cookson has presided over the transformation of British Cycling from near-bankrupt cycling minnows to arguably the most successful and professional cycling federation in the world, meaning Pat McQuaid now has a real fight on his hands to stay in office.
UCI president Pat McQuaid fired a pre-emptive strike on British Cycling president Brian Cookson the day before Cookson announced he was to challenge the Irishman for the post of UCI president.
McQuaid wrote to the presidents of the national cycling federations globally to inform them he was very concerned about apparent links between Cookson and two key Russian figures in the sport of cycling.
One of the men McQuaid mentions is Wojciech Walkiewicz, a former UCI management committee member and honorary president of the European Cycling Union (UEC). The other is UCI management committee member and owner of the Katusha team Igor Makarov.
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The Irishman has suggested in his letter – sent by email on Monday just the day before Cookson declared his candidacy – that the Russians had recently been trying to put in place a candidate to run for UCI president when the vote takes place in September.
Before Cookson entered the fray yesterday, Tuesday, McQuaid was unopposed. And it was beginning to look as though, once he secured a nomination to run for his third term, his candidacy may remain unopposed.
However, with Cookson having presided over the transformation of British Cycling from near-bankrupt cycling minnows to arguably the most successful and professional cycling federation in the world, McQuaid now has a real fight on his hands to stay in office.
He says in his letter to the federations around the world that Cookson recently met Makarov at the behest of Walkiewicz, suggesting Cookson had now emerged as a candidate for the UCI presidency despite recent private assurances to McQuaid that he would not run, and similar utterances in public interviews.
McQuaid quoted from the private correspondence and Cookson’s interviews in the email he sent on Monday to the national federations.
He said Makarov was angry that the UCI licence commission denied his team a place in the 2013 WorldTour for “ethical reasons” (a decision that the Court of Arbitration for Sport later overturned in Katusha’s favour).
McQuaid also outlines a €1m donation by Makarov’s company Itera to the UEC and said he would be asking Cookson if he was concerned about the donation.
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McQuaid’s email states that Walkiewicz “is employed by” Makarov and that Walkiewicz had in the past tried to influence UEC elections, suggesting he was now trying to do the same with the UCI presidential election.
“I fear Mr Cookson may be a pawn in a larger game,” McQuaid writes.
McQuaid is effectively suggesting that Cookson has been engineered as a candidate to run against him by two wealthy and influential Russian cycling figures who, claims the Irishman, have reason to want him out.
However, Cookson has said while he had previously supported McQuaid, he was troubled by the reasoned decision compiled by the World Anti Doping Agency after its investigation into Lance Armstrong. Cookson also cited the failure of the UCI’s independent commission and poor relations between cycling’s world governing body and WADA as reasons why he has now decided to stand against McQuaid.
Stickybottle would like to point out there is no suggestion on our part that Cookson is being put forward as a candidate to further the agenda of a third party, or that Walkiewicz or Makarov have behaved underhandedly.
There is also no suggestion on our part that Cookson is running for election for any reason other than the principals he has already outlined publicly, some of which are contained in our story of yesterday:
The full text of McQuaid’s email to the president’s of the national federations can be found here:
http://s4.skins.net/misc/NFs_Presidents_UCI_elections_4_3_6_2013.pdf
Both McQuaid and Cookson are due to publish manifestos for the future of the sport, with the fight for president of the UCI becoming an interesting one.
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