McQuaid - Another Four Years

[BroDeal]

A lot of the contempt for McQuaid comes from his big mouth. Not a week goes by it seems when he does not stick his foot into it in some way.

When Armstrong evaded dope testing in the Spring by refusing to let the tester inside for thirty minutes while he "showered", McQuaid dismissed the concern over it. It was ridiculous at the time because if you give the athletes unchaperoned time to mask what they are using then the testing is worthless. At the Tour de France we now have Astana using the same technique but worse. They are hiding from the testers for a whole hour. The situation is completely predicatble. These sorts of things happen all the time with McQuaid. He is incredibily stupid, corrupt, or both.

The whole ProTour spat with the GT organizers really showed how polically inept he is. It is hard to imagine anyone doing a worse job than he did. It was like a man walking through a park littered with dog doo and managing to step in every pile.

 

[Dr. Maserati]

A lot of the contempt for McQuaid comes from his big mouth.........

I do accept that - as I remember years ago when Paul Kimmage released a Rough Ride that McQ said Kimmage was "bad for cycling"!

 

[elapid]

I don't what has provoked the sarcasm as I pointed out quite clearly my dissatisfaction with UCI - and agree that it needs to be overhauled.
I know it's slightly off topic - but what alternative is there to the UCI?

As I said it is a topic I am interested in - and would love to find out more, I know that David Walsh's new book covers a lot about the UCI but my French is quite poor.

Sorry - I really was being genuine and not sarcastic. I really did mean without any sarcasm that it was great that the UCI had done something for you and your club. It doesn't restore my faith in the UCI, but at least it shows they occasionally help out the little guys in this big, power-hungry, money-grubbing world.

 

[Dr. Maserati]

Sorry - I really was being genuine and not sarcastic. I really did mean without any sarcasm that it was great that the UCI had done something for you and your club. It doesn't restore my faith in the UCI, but at least it shows they occasionally help out the little guys in this big, power-hungry, money-grubbing world.

Ha- apologies! Sometimes its hard to know where the sarcasm ends on this site.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Commented too many times in the past about this. Simply to say it's a huge, huge disappointment, and I fully expect very little, if any change over the next four years. Things will probably get worse, actually.

 

[Bala Verde]

When he first came to prominence I was quite 'happy' with his CV.
I know Bella that the Tour of Ireland is small fry in the grand scheme of things but to be fair the Tour of Ireland when he ran it as the 'Nissan Classic' was excellent. Good appearance fee's for the riders, good conditions, good hotels, a very well run publicity campaign that gave the sponsor excellent value for their investment.
Anyone who has been involved in cycling and particularly Pro Cycling will know that it is a very small world. So he was well respected on that level for his experience as rider and organizer.
I will admit I have met him and he is a 'nice' guy and I was very impressed with his knowledge particularly things away from Pro Tour level like junior racing.

Don't get me wrong, I read your whole post, but I just wanted to comment on the CV section.

I highlighted his 'thin' resume because to me it seems 'thin' when compared to the agenda he has/should have to improve the state cycling is in. The events under his supervision where minor, and nothing but real down to earth cycling events. As you said, it was about fees, logistics, lodging, permits. To me, but my analogy may be wrong, it similar to a local Wall-Mart store manager suddenly becoming the CEO Wall-Mart.

Secondly, since he has been so involved in cycling throughout the years and the cycling world is relatively small, I doubt he has been vetted thoroughly, or as you would want one to be vetted when assuming such enormous responsibilities ie representing the world of cycling.

As you said, he was well known and well liked by many. That is perhaps the most dangerous situation to be in when you need to act as a captain on a ship in a storm. It's the qualifications and skills as a captain that will help him navigate, or get 'the job done', not your affability factor. In this way, he can be held in a stranglehold, because when people stop liking him, he'll have little left to get anything done. However, people who continuously support him, will also want to receive favours in return. Clientelism is the word...

Thirdly, as an ex-rider from the past, I doubt (my opinion, no fact) he had any real interest in anti-doping. I wonder how he is going to deal with it in the next couple of years and how he is going to reconcile this with those who supported him to continue his presidency while expecting favours in return...

I am rather pessimistic, but I hope I am wrong.

There doesn't appear to be an alternative to UCI. That might not even be necesarry, they just need a president, maybe even from outside the cycling world, to get back on track and act as a federation that represents cycling.

 

[podilato]

The UCI is probably no different from a lot of other sporting bodies. McQuaid is just a Verbruggen patsy just as Platini is Sepp Blatter's patsy in Uefa. Mcquaid is certainly not going to do anything that Verbruggen wouldn't do. Does anyone ever ask Verbruggen for his thoughts on his ex-boss Samaranch giving Nazi salutes or being a former minister in Franco's fascist government? What about the bribes paid by the Salt Lake organising committe to the IOC? I beleive Verbruggen was on a committe overseeing these bids. Does he know how much was paid to who? What about the 'donations' paid by the Japanese Cycling Federation to try and get the keirin in the Olympics. The staunch opponent Verbruggen suddenly changed his mind coincidently at around the same time these donations were made.
Until enough people start asking these questions then nothing will change.

 

[hoolaparara]

Was I the only person who saw this story and was confused because I thought Ari Vatanen was standing against him only to realised I'd confused with ****wit was in charge of the global body was ******ing up which sport?

I've realised that most of these sporting bodies are controlled for the most part by people who would love to get on the political gravy train but just aren't smart enough to cut it in real politics.