UCI president Brian Cookson at the Tour of Beijing. He's formally withdrawn the threat of legal action against Paul Kimmage.
With Pat McQuaid having been deposed as UCI president last month at the UCI congress in Italy, one of the first acts of his successor Brian Cookson has been to officially withdraw the threat of legal action against Paul Kimmage.
McQuaid and former UCI president Hein Verbruggen had early last year begun legal action against Kimmage, who they said had libelled them with an accusation of corruption.
They informed the north Co Dublin-based former pro turned journalist that they were taking legal action against him.
That process began just after Kimmage lost his job at The Sunday Times, meaning the safety net of his newspaper fighting the the case and picking up the bill, was not open to Kimmage.
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Last October, in the immediate aftermath of the USADA report into Lance Armstrong being published and the UCI reacting by banning the American from racing for life, McQuaid said the action against Kimmage had been suspended.
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Few expected the case to ever be re-commenced but Cookson has now moved to put that beyond doubt.
In his first statement issued since taking on the UCI presidency, Cookson said: “Earlier this week I called Paul Kimmage to tell him that the UCI has withdrawn from the legal action against him.”
Meanwhile, McQuaid had promised an independent commission in the immediate aftermath of the damning USADA report into Armstrong, saying it would examine the UCI’s role in relation to the disgraced former pro.
However, the process was quickly derailed. Cookson has now said he is working to get that back in track and has established contact with the World Anti Doping Agency in that regard.
“We have started the work of establishing a high level dialogue with WADA to plan how we will proceed with the independent investigation into the UCI’s past. We have also been making contact with other key stakeholders in this area, including USADA, other national anti-doping organisations and the French Sports Ministry.”
Cookson made no mention of any effort to remove Verbruggen from the post of UCI honorary president. McQuaid was heavily criticised during his second term as president for leaving Verbruggen in the post.
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