"another interesting piece I found on the UCI and president Pat McQuaid " Thread

[D-Queued]

The "scumbag" witness quote of McQuaid was actually a direct steal from Murdoch only a day earlier, on twitter, when he commented on The News of the World phone hack victims as "scumbag celebrities".

Murdoch has copped huge flack for his twitter comment, and has since clarified his comment...

Interesting to see Pat replaying Rupert in light of the Sky connection. Almost as if Pat is saying Rupert I support you, I am your biggest fan...

Yes, and please don't forget to leave something in the UCI tip jar!

Dave.

 

[Cramps]

UCI benefits to grand tours

The relationships between cycling organizations is confusing to me. What benefits do TdF, Giro, Vuelta get from UCI?

I remember Prudhomme had a run-in a few years ago with UCI and my (perhaps faulty) memory was that he suggested UCI needed TdF more than the other way round.

I suppose really my question is, beyond pressure from sponsors on the UCI, is it possible that the grand tours could put pressure for UCI leadership change?

 

[Arnout]

McQuaid won't go away. It is not an option for him. Not because he likes the money and exposure (I'm sure he does) but because he knows that once he leaves, an investigation will uncover everything and destroy his life.

Luckily he can't be president forever.

 

[D-Queued]

McQuaid won't go away. It is not an option for him. Not because he likes the money and exposure (I'm sure he does) but because he knows that once he leaves, an investigation will uncover everything and destroy his life.

Luckily he can't be president forever.

Can't wait for the hand-picked successor.

Did someone just nominate his brother?

Dave.

 

[Dear Wiggo]

T

I suppose really my question is, beyond pressure from sponsors on the UCI, is it possible that the grand tours could put pressure for UCI leadership change?

Not while the UCI decide which races are in the ProTour and which are out.

ASO + UCI had a meeting (MJM has more details somewhere) and divided the global racing scene up between themselves.

End result: UCI stole money from the pro team-funded account to create GCP (Global Cycing Promotion). ASO get to run the GCP races, which automatically get stuck in the Pro Tour series. UCI get to force teams to attend, or threaten their sponsors if they choose not to attend. The UCI then get to sell the TV rights to the races.

It's a nice little earner all round.

eg: Tour of Beijing.

 

[Arnout]

Dutch cycling federation hands in official request for independent investigation in UCI.

nos.nl/artikel/433392-knwu-stuurt-brief-aan-uci.html

 

[proffate]

Not while the UCI decide which races are in the ProTour and which are out.

If they really got in a spat, I think ASO would have the upper hand over the UCI. The TdF is bigger than the rest of the sport combined, and if the UCI pulled the protour status it probably wouldn't affect the TdF one iota (except that ASO wouldn't have to invite certain joke teams like lampre). In fact this would be great for cycling because it would be a major step towards a breakaway league. I would say ASO is the one organization big enough to single-handedly effect change in the UCI.

 

[mountainrman]

If McQuaid had an ethical bone in his body, he would turn the tables by presenting his vision for cycling , and offering himself up for a vote of confidence .If he wins he quels calls for his resignation, and cycling can get back to rebuilding itself.

 

[Benotti69]

If McQuaid had an ethical bone in his body, he would turn the tables by presenting his vision for cycling , and offering himself up for a vote of confidence .If he wins he quels calls for his resignation, and cycling can get back to rebuilding itself.

You really have no clue about how the UCI functions do you? either that or you are trolling and based on previous posts you are trolling.

Verbruggen told all the federations to elect McQuaid.

They would tell all the feds to vote for McQuaid.

UCI is rotten to the core!

 

[Dear Wiggo]

If they really got in a spat, I think ASO would have the upper hand over the UCI. The TdF is bigger than the rest of the sport combined, and if the UCI pulled the protour status it probably wouldn't affect the TdF one iota (except that ASO wouldn't have to invite certain joke teams like lampre). In fact this would be great for cycling because it would be a major step towards a breakaway league. I would say ASO is the one organization big enough to single-handedly effect change in the UCI.

Whilst at face value this appears to be the case - that ASO could break away - there's the issue of the Olympics, and that appears to have a significant impact on what you can do. I don't have all the threads of that implication in place, but basically all national feds come under UCI, who comes under IOC, which allows UCI to have their sport at the IOC games as long as they adhere to WADA.

The breakaway league needs to maintain some ties to IOC, as most of the revenue for national federations - and it's a lot - National Gov't --> National Cycling Federation is dependent on medals won at Olympics games.

There's more to it than that, but in a nutshell, the IOC-UCI relationship is something the breakaway league will find very difficult to recreate, but something they need (I believe) to make it stick.

 

[I Watch Cycling In July]

Seen this from the UCI 2011 news bulletin (page 103)? UCI Overlord and JV were talking about it on twitter.

The UCI President gave an update on the situation of doping in professional Road cycling over the last few years:
As soon as Mr P. McQuaid became UCI President in 2005, he had to deal with major doping cases in professional Road cycling. Unfortunately, the trend of doping has not improved and the number of cases is still high. Last April, at the 2012 registration conference in Brussels, as an introduction, the President gave a presentation to teams explaining to them that nobody was safe from doping.

Doesn't McQuaid understand, it's all in the past?

 

[summerhill]

Great piece by Eamon Sweeney about Pat's calibre.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/oth...uaid-still-blaming-everyone-else-3276782.html

Given the revulsion with which the vast majority of sportsmen regarded the South African regime, you'd imagine Pat McQuaid might regret his boycott-busting jaunt below the equator. Not at all. Some years later, he told David Walsh, in an interview for the latter's biography of Kelly, "I would say it was the best month of my life. The weather was great, the countryside was beautiful, my form was at its best and the time we spent touring the countryside afterwards was superb. It was a great trip."

Last week Pat McQuaid, displaying a level of virulence he was unable to summon up for the chief culprit, described those who'd spilt the beans on Lance Armstrong as "scumbags". You know what Pat? That's a bit rich. On your bike son.

 

[DirtyWorks]

This may be posted elsewhere, but it looks like Pat and Hein have found another sucker and are on their way to fulfilling their dreams of screwing every promoter BUT the ASO.

http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/1...d-Series-Cycling-group-over-new-calendar.aspx

... Omega Pharma-QuickStep owner Zdenek Bakala and his business partner Bessel Kok since late 2011 about the possible development of the professional road cycling calendar....

Apparently they package other sports events for media already, which is exactly what Hein and Pat have been trying to do for years.

“These discussions have included their potential financial investment in a new joint venture company with the UCI and other cycling stakeholders that would promote and organise elements of this new calendar,”

This has broad consequences to the traditional cycling calendar that are not ASO-owned events and is a big opportunity for the UCI to re-brand themselves and pretend the system doesn't fix races by supressing doping.

 

[thehog]

It was a long time ago...

McQuaid, who has been UCI president since 2005, said he believed the public and media appreciated that the Armstrong period was outside his control.

"It deals with a period between 1999 and 2005 when most people now realize that the armoury in the fight against doping was much weaker than it is today," he said.

"Those guys were able to cheat and beat the system at that time because the system wasn't strong enough.

"Now we have the biological passport, where we do 10,000 tests a year at a cost of 7.5 million euros ($9.82 million).

"We invest in anti-doping and we have the no-needle policy I introduced, which means no teams or doctors are allowed to use needles except for medical necessity."

The UCI is also doing its best to get rid of the cheats for good, McQuaid added.

"We've also introduced a rule whereby any cyclist convicted of doping in a team can never come back into sport as part of the entourage," he said.

"That will take time to come through, but it means in 10 or 15 years time, that no entourage will have a member of a team who was involved in doping."

REFORM PROCESS

He pointed to recent reforms including the creation of a three-man independent commission, headed by former Court of Appeal judge Philip Otton, to investigate allegations that the UCI did not do its best to fight against doping during the Armstrong era.

The commission is to hold a hearing in London in April and produce a report by June.

"A lot of our critics said it wouldn't be independent and I think we've proven them wrong," said McQuaid.

"I think this commission is probably the most independent high-powered commission ever to study a sport's problem and I think they'll do a very good job on it.

"The commission will hopefully prove that we did do our job correctly."

McQuaid rejected a demand from Change Cycling Now (CCN), comprising former riders, journalists and anti-doping campaigners, which has said he should step down.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/13/us-cycling-mcquaid-armstrong-idUSBRE8BC18L20121213

 

[Grandillusion]

Great piece by Eamon Sweeney about Pat's calibre.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/oth...uaid-still-blaming-everyone-else-3276782.html

Given the revulsion with which the vast majority of sportsmen regarded the South African regime, you'd imagine Pat McQuaid might regret his boycott-busting jaunt below the equator. Not at all. Some years later, he told David Walsh, in an interview for the latter's biography of Kelly, "I would say it was the best month of my life. The weather was great, the countryside was beautiful, my form was at its best and the time we spent touring the countryside afterwards was superb. It was a great trip."

Last week Pat McQuaid, displaying a level of virulence he was unable to summon up for the chief culprit, described those who'd spilt the beans on Lance Armstrong as "scumbags". You know what Pat? That's a bit rich. On your bike son.

Thanks for the link Summerhill - my God, the man is utterly beyond the pale.

So apart from the blood on his hands regarding complicity in doping, he had blood on his hands as far back as the mid '70s helping to prop up Apartheid in South Africa?

The man is a total pariah, what in God's name is he doing in charge of professional cycling?

 

[86TDFWinner]

Look at the BS this guy slings, jesus he's just a sad, pathetic, POS:

http://velonews.competitor.com/2012...gant-to-suggest-interim-uci-presidency_268895


“Greg was a great cyclist who I’ve known since the time when I was the organizer of the Tour of Ireland back in the 1980s, but I would ask him: ‘What have you done for cycling in the past 25 years?’ The answer is nothing,” McQuaid said. “I find it a little bit arrogant for him to say he is prepared to serve as interim president of the UCI. The UCI is a democracy, there is an electoral system in place. If he wants to, he can always seek the support of his national federation and stand for election next September.”

 

[thehog]

@jaimiefuller: just had really good meeting with @gaudryt president oceania region and in uci management committee. smart lady. tough lady. great values.

Looks like not just marketing. Getting the hooks in.

 

[Tom375]

@jaimiefuller: just had really good meeting with @gaudryt president oceania region and in uci management committee. smart lady. tough lady. great values.

Looks like not just marketing. Getting the hooks in.

Promising... - Kick Pat & Hein out tough lady!

 

[DirtyWorks]

Cracks Appear

Och manages some of Pat's money at .....
...
...
...
wait for it
...
...
...
Thom Wiesel's retail financial broker operation!
...
...

How many business deals is Hein, Pat, Och, Wiesel, and the rest of the Tailwind/CSE organizations have together? Where there's smoke, there is definitely fire. Definitely.

What's wrong with the president of a sports federation mixing personal matters in with Team managers and their sponsors? It isn't illegal, but what is it?

The journos reading these forums could break some scandalous news if they got to work on this.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/verbruggen-had-account-with-armstrong-backer-says-ochowicz

 

[neineinei]

In an interview with Fri Netherlands Hein Verbruggen said that as president of the UCI he had taken the initiative to take blood tests and to warn the riders when the results were suspect.

UCI warned Armstrong and other riders with suspicious values for years (Google translate)

Wielerbond waarschuwde jarenlang Armstrong en andere renners met verdachte waarden (Original Dutch)

 

[the asian]

UCI warned Armstrong and other riders with suspicious values for years (Google translate)

Wielerbond waarschuwde jarenlang Armstrong en andere renners met verdachte waarden (Original Dutch)

Is the translation correct?
If so,this is big news. There was no Bio Passport at that time.
So this means, whenever there were indications that rider had doped, the UCI called the rider and said, "Sorry we have caught you, this is how we catch you, try and do better next time to cover up your doping"

What was Hein smoking when he said this

 

[Robert21]

Brian Cookson of British Cycling closes ranks with Pat McQuaid

"I am fully supportive of UCI president Pat McQuaid, who, since his election in 2005, has done an impressive job in frequently difficult circumstances. Any speculation at this difficult time is particularly unhelpful, and I think it is absolutely vital for the future of our sport that we all remain united."

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...brian-cookson-rules-out-uci-post-8462301.html

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news...okson-i-am-100-supportive-of-pat-mcquaid.html

 

[Mrs John Murphy]

Brian Cookson of British Cycling closes ranks with Pat McQuaid



http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...brian-cookson-rules-out-uci-post-8462301.html

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news...okson-i-am-100-supportive-of-pat-mcquaid.html

The same person who previously said:

Head of British Cycling says UCI has one 'last chance to prove its credibility' in wake of Lance Armstrong report

Brian Cookson, Britain’s representative on the International Cycling Union board, has warned his own colleagues in Switzerland that unless they nominate a truly independent commission with the power to investigate every allegation of wrong-doing against it then it will cease to exist as cycling’s world governing body.

“To be honest this is the UCI’s last chance to re-establish itself as a credible organisation,” says Cookson, president of British Cycling.

“Unless we have a commission that the sporting community trust to deliver verdicts on the big questions the UCI, to put it honestly, will be stuffed.

“We are looking at a commission of three to investigate everything and anything that needs looking at and, in fact, once those three are appointed they will be invited to draw up their own terms of reference. Nothing will be off limits.

"That was the strong mood of the management board meeting on Friday and we are expecting everybody from Hein Verbruggen and Pat McQuaid downwards to be completely transparent at all times.”

Cookson has confirmed that both the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Olympic Committee will be consulted as to the composition of the commission and that ideally it will contain at least one internationally respected judge while the other two individuals would be figures from the sporting world. The UCI expects to have finalised the make-up by the end of next week. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/oth...ng-report.html

How much was the kickback Brian?

 

[Robert21]

How much was the kickback Brian?

He is probably just looking to protect his position (despite the denials) as potentially the next UCI president. After all, such positions are rarely given to 'mavericks' who are unafraid to tell the truth and genuinely seek change.

http://sport.uk.msn.com/cookson-linked-with-uci-presidency-role

http://www1.skysports.com/cycling/news/15264/8421216/

I am sure that his recent comments will help to convince 'the powers that be' that he is a 'safe pair of hands'.

 

[poupou]

Someone could have reminded Brian Cookson a difficult moment of his past, and then convinced him to support McQuaid.
That can be too a way to lure voters of McQuaid.