Pat McQuaid believes has done a lot for Irish and world cycling and wants to continue for a third term as UCI president.
This coming Saturday, Irish clubs are set to meet at a Cycling Ireland EGM to vote for or against nominating UCI president Pat McQuaid to run for a third term in office. One of the best Irish riders of his generation, McQuaid has been president of the UCI for almost two four-year terms. Before taking up that post, he was well known as having brought the Tour de France to Ireland in 1998 and organised a string of pro races including the Tour of Britain and the Nissan Classic; an event that brought the world's best to Irish shores in the halcyon days of Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche.
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In recent years as the UCI has grappled with doping in the sport, and most recently with the Lance Armstrong affair, McQuaid has been forced to defend his and the UCI's record in the fight against drugs. In this column before this weekend’s EGM, he sets out his record and involvement in the sport, the anti doping measures he has ushered in since taking over at the UCI and the plans he has for the future if he wins the presidential election when it is held in September.
Just over three months ago I traveled to Balbriggan for a meeting with Dr Conor McGrane. I had arranged the meeting after reaching out to Conor (Cycling Ireland’s doctor who wants a new president for the UCI – ed). He had expressed concern over the direction that our sport was taking.
Conor told me that he worked with young elite riders and that he felt a responsibility to do as much as he could to prevent them from getting into a situation where they would be pressurised into doping. I completely understood his point of view.
Our meeting afforded me an opportunity to outline the many initiatives that I have introduced to create an environment where riders can now compete and win clean and to assure Conor of my determination to rid cycling of its doping culture.
These initiatives go beyond the introduction of the pioneering athlete blood passport programme. They include the mandatory use of the electronic whereabouts system (ADAMS), the ‘no needle’ policy and rules which prevent athletes convicted of doping from becoming team staff members.
Some of these initiatives were a first for sport and have proven to be highly effective in deterring doping within cycling and in helping the UCI to catch and prosecute high profile riders for doping.
Over the weeks that followed I also took time to meet each board member of Cycling Ireland, to listen to their point of view and to engage thoroughly on how I propose to continue developing the sport and to ensure that it remains at the forefront of the fight against doping in sport.
I was honoured that the board subsequently voted overwhelmingly to nominate me as a candidate for the Presidency of the UCI. The board requested that I raise certain governance issues with the UCI Management Committee and they have been tabled for discussion and decision at this week’s meeting in Bergen, Norway.
Although he had previously called for an EGM I was heartened to receive correspondence from Dr. Conor McGrane in which he accepted the democratic decision of the board.
The board of Cycling Ireland is elected by its members and it is only right and proper that due respect and recognition is given to the board’s mandate and responsibility to take decisions in the best interests of the members that it represents.
We have now arrived at a situation where Cycling Ireland has referred the matter to an EGM and I have secured my nomination from the national cycling federation in Switzerland where I have lived for the past eight years. I respect that 32 of the 330 clubs supported an EGM after an intensive lobbying campaign.
Cycling Ireland is not permitted to cancel the EGM that it has called and a small group of activists who have been manipulated by commercial interests have sought to mislead and convince anyone who will listen that this is a defining moment in my election campaign.
The suggestion that my nomination from the Swiss Cycling Federation does not comply fully with the UCI rules is untrue, deliberately misleading and disingenuous. The suggestion that it will be overturned is equally baseless.
I am aware that three Swiss cycling members have agreed to front a legal challenge to my nomination. An invitation to do was extended by a company and individual who have sought to politicise and hijack the UCI Presidential election and to turn it into their own global PR and marketing campaign. This legal challenge is also baseless.
It is also conveniently timed and designed as a desperate last ditch attempt to energise Irish clubs into attending and voting against me at their EGM when I have already secured my nomination from the Swiss Cycling Federation. I have absolutely no concerns about this challenge and club members should not be fooled into believing that this challenge could ever succeed.
The same company pulled a similar PR stunt over six months ago when it announced that it was launching a $2 million lawsuit against the UCI for damages as a result of Lance Armstrong's doping with a ludicrous claim that its brand had been damaged by the UCI’s governance of the sport. The fact that it never followed through by initiating the lawsuit tells you all you need to know about the man behind the company and how far he will stoop to generate publicity for his brand.
This same individual should not be allowed to derail a democratic election for commercial gain. He does not represent cycling stakeholders and has failed to gain the support of even one rider.
Many of those whom he pulled together under the umbrella of the Change Cycling Now organisation have since reconsidered their association with him, with one member citing that there were limits to what their sense of value and integrity allowed them to do.
Paul Kimmage was the first to declare that the CCN organisation had not worked and that “it’s been a lot of hot air”. For once, I agree with Paul.
The reality is that I have received a wealth of letters from national federations all around the world urging me to stand for President. I strongly believe that it should be for our national federations around the world to decide democratically on their next President.
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Their support has been echoed by club members throughout Ireland who recognise that my interest in promoting and developing the sport, not just in Ireland, but internationally, goes back to my days as a former President of Cycling Ireland (1993 - 1997), race organiser for the Nissan Classic and promoter of the 1998 Tour de France Grand Depart in Ireland and the Tour of Britain.
While my commitments as President of the UCI prevent me from being able to engage each club on an individual basis, the UCI has provided a comprehensive response to the issues raised by the USADA reasoned decision. The UCI has nothing to hide and I am pleased to present this document to clubs.
Cycling has never been a sport that turned a blind eye to the scourge of doping. Quite the contrary; for the past 20 years, the UCI has done everything possible to tackle doping by riders.
Not only that, the UCI has frequently been the leading organisation in this fight, the pioneer in introducing anti-doping measures and at the forefront of many new technical advances. Many times, the UCI has forged ahead alone, taking all the risks associated with doing so.
The UCI did not protect Lance Armstrong. Every decision by the UCI concerning Armstrong – and indeed every other rider – was taken in compliance with the known facts and with the science available at the time.
Three months ago, the UCI was unfortunately left with no choice but to disband the Independent Commission that it had established to look into various issues and allegations contained in the USADA reasoned decision relating to the Lance Armstrong Affair.
I was extremely disappointed that the UCI was not able to have its record and the many false allegations that were being made about our organisation and our sport examined by an independent body – and for our names to be cleared. But with WADA and USADA refusing to co-operate with the Independent Commission, it made no sense to continue, particularly given the multi-million cost of the process.
I should stress that the UCI remains committed to commissioning an independent audit of the behaviour and practices of our organisation during the Armstrong years. We have discussed this with WADA and I will bring forward proposals about this to this week’s management committee meeting in Bergen, Norway.
The UCI is also committed to engaging with USADA and has already started sending all requested test result data held on Lance Armstrong to USADA and WADA.
I acknowledge that there is still a lot the UCI needs to do to repair the damage caused to our sport after the Armstrong affair. We also clearly need to do a much better job communicating our anti-doping activities and reassuring the public and our stakeholders that we are doing everything possible to ensure a clean sport and to protect clean riders – and that the culture in the peloton has changed radically from that of years past.
I welcome that fact that riders like our own Dan Martin and Nicolas Roche. Giro d’Italia winner Ryder Hesjedal and Mark Cavendish, amongst others, and this week even Critérium Dauphine winner and Tour favourite Chris Froome have been forthright in saying that the sport has changed, that it is moving in the right direction and that it is now possible to win clean.
That view is shared by journalists with Herbie Sykes, for example, writing in his new book ‘Maglia Rosa’ that my “balance sheet is heavily in the black where the fight against doping is concerned” and that while I may have fallen some way short of halting the train entirely, objectively, “more has been done to combat doping during Pat McQuaid’s tenure than in the entire century preceding it.”
My work to further develop and promote cycling continues at the UCI management committee this week where the findings of a report following the completion of the UCI Stakeholders Consultation, ‘A Bright Future for Cycling’ will be presented to members.
The report by Deloitte will lay the foundations for the future development of the sport and it makes a number of key recommendations under the consultation’s four pillars of anti doping, cycling calendar, globalisation and riders.
In its summary report, Deloitte makes six ‘crucial’ recommendations, spanning all four consultation pillars, to enable cycling to achieve its ‘bright future’:
- Restore the credibility of cycling and the public perception of the sport.
- Decide whether to hold an independent inquiry into the Armstrong affair and whether to offer riders an ‘amnesty’ or reduced sanctions for coming forward to that enquiry.
- Develop a long-term strategic plan for cycling.
- Further strengthen the anti-doping culture that exists in the UCI.
- Improve the UCI’s relationship with WADA.
- Restructure the pro-cycling calendar.
It also made five additional ‘high-priority’ recommendations:
- Increase the independence of the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation (CADF).
- Appoint an independent anti-doping body to sanction professional riders caught doping.
- Review the existing points system for pro-teams.
- Develop women’s cycling.
- Improve communication with professional road riders.
I welcome these recommendations and the collective contribution of the thousands of stakeholders who engaged in the consultation and who recognised the many improvements that have been made in anti-doping in recent years.
Over the coming weeks I intend to publish my manifesto for developing and promoting cycling.
My priority is to ensure that cycling continues to lead the fight against the scourge of doping in sport and to promote the development of the sport globally. The peloton now represents 44 different countries and the World Tour is broadcast in 175 countries. I will continue to develop cycling in new countries around the world, in particular focusing on the BRIC nations, as well as Africa.
Strengthening women’s cycling and modernising both the cycling calendar as well as the way that cycling is presented are other priorities. Cycling needs to ensure that what we are delivering is what the media as well as cycling’s millions of fans want and the UCI is actively engaging stakeholders on restructuring the pro-cycling calendar.
This week’s UCI management committee meeting will also ratify proposed changes to the structure of the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation, a process which started last year and which will greatly strengthen CADF’s independence.
The UCI, via the CADF, is the only international federation that has an independent dedicated foundation to run its anti-doping programme. It recently received certification from the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) guaranteeing the high quality of its work.
I stand over my achievements in cycling and my contribution to ensuring that cycling has the most stringent anti-doping infrastructure in sport.
I am confident of my support in Ireland and from the international federations throughout the world who recognise me as someone who is wholly committed to ensuring that our sport is clean and that the culture of doping has radically changed.
I will continue to stand up for cycling. I have dedicated my life to cycling and it is my intention to continue to advance the sport through my role as an elected member of the International Olympic Committee, the ASOIF, and, as I hope, the ongoing UCI President.
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