RTE's Claire Byrne will put Pat McQuaid through his paces on Prime Time on RTE 1 from 9.35pm tonight, Thursday
The Irish national broadcaster, RTÉ is to feature the battle for the UCI presidency in its flagship TV current affairs programme Prime Time.
The item is to be broadcast tonight, Thursday, to coincide with the build up to Saturday’s Cycling Ireland EGM on Pat McQuaid’s proposed nomination to run for a third term as president of the world governing body.
While McQuaid will not appear at the EGM due to UCI-related travel commitments, he emailed club officials yesterday to set out his record as UCI president, after writing a column for stickybottle.
The Prime Time show airs tonight on RTÉ 1 from 9.35pm to 10.15pm, with the cycling item to be given a segment of around 20 minutes.
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Stickybottle understands a crew from Prime Time has been conducting interviews with relevant parties at home and abroad over the past week or so. The item on the battle for the UCI presidency will conclude with an interview with McQuaid.
However, before he is given his time to speak, viewers will have seen interviews with journalist Shane Stokes, whose stock has risen dramatically in recent years at home and abroad and has in the past few months begun contributing to stickybottle to add to his international online, print and broadcast work.
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Dr Conor McGrane has also been interviewed.
Based in north Co Dublin, he is Cycling Ireland’s official doctor. He has campaigned in a personal capacity for an EGM to decide if the association should nominate McQuaid to run for the presidential election in September.
He is also part of a group of Cycling Ireland members that produced ‘The Pat McQuaid File’, which is essentially a position paper in which they outline their reasons for believing a change is needed at the top of the UCI.
Also set to appear on tonight’s programme is Travis Tygart, the head of the US Anti Doping Agency (USADA) and Anto Moran, the only Cycling Ireland board member to oppose McQuaid’s nomination at a board meeting in April when the UCI president was endorsed to run for election again.
However, that meeting was later ruled void on a technicality and Cycling Ireland subsequently decided to hold an EGM on the issue, though not before Moran resigned his place on the board.
Jörg Jaksche, the German former pro rider and winner of Paris Nice in 2004, is also set to appear on tonight’s Prime Time. He rode for a number of teams as a pro including Telekom/T Mobile and has since spoken openly about doping and his role in it.
He told the USADA investigation into Lance Armstrong that when he went to the UCI in 2007 to blow the whistle regarding doping in the sport, he believed his information was never acted upon and claims it was not welcomed at the time.
