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McQuaid: Landis and Hamilton are Not Heroes.

Interesting take from His Royal A$$hat. So let me get this straight: it's alright to commercialize on Wonderboy-Cancer Jesus and to have protected your cash cow until there was no other choice but to throw him under the bus; however, opening the first major cracks in the cycling facade of omertà is evil - and of course doing wrong to the sport?

It's alright to write a book, just so long as you don't commercialize on it too much, as apparently Millar didn't do (who is still racing and hence employed)? It's not ok, though, to write one with earth shattering news that actually causes a sensation and makes up for the lost income, because you were unceremoniously thrown out of the environment by the system you now denounce?

It's ok to tell the truth, so long as it is only damaging to yourself? Anything that touches the sport's governance, however, is only for mendacious and thoroughly opportunistic reasons?

Let me specify that I don't consider Floyd and Tyler "heroes," which is something else. Yet between idol worship and anathema there exists an objective and infinitely more fair and actual assessment of what they have achieved. In light of his moral casuistry, the only scumbag here is McQuaid.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/mcquaid-landis-and-hamilton-are-far-from-heroes
 
Mar 17, 2009
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Got to love this by Cyclingnews though!

But while McQuaid suggested that Kimmage – against whom he has instigated defamation proceedings in a Swiss court – and Hamilton had written partly or wholly for commercial gain, he insisted that David Millar's 2011 confessional autobiography, "Racing Through the Dark", was an entirely different case.

"No, because when Millar wrote the book, he wrote it and published it and then I never heard a word about it after that," McQuaid said. "He didn't do a huge amount of promoting of his book and he doesn't to this day. Millar gave an interview on Cyclingnews today and he didn't mention his book. Every time you hear Tyler Hamilton, he's mentioning his book."

In fact, David Millar's Twitter profile explicitly promotes his book, as is his prerogative as an author. On the publication of "Racing Through the Dark", Millar appeared at book festivals, gave numerous promotional interviews and also had an extract published in Procycling magazine. A wine reception was also held in the Vendée on the eve of the 2011 Tour de France to promote his book.
 
Does the use of the word "scumbag" in relation to Hamilton and Landis put them at a higher or lower level than Armstrong who was only mentioned as "having no place in cycling"?

Sure, neither of them are angels, but at least they fessed up, unlike LA.

Seems to me that the UCI doesn't like the whistle being blown by someone other than themselves.
 
Jul 25, 2009
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"Another thing that annoys me is that Landis and Hamilton are being made out to be heroes. They are as far from heroes as night and day. They are not heroes, they are scumbags. All they have done is damage the sport."

McQuaid will never get it. It's not the poeple who tell the truth that damages the sport, it's the people who allow that truth to become a reality in the firts place. They are the scumbags. They damage the sport and they damage people in the process.

Landis and Hamilton are fallible human beings, not gilded heroes. When speaking out though, they must have feared ridicule and insults and being ostracized by their peers. I think their actions required courage, and that it's fair to recognize them for that.

I hope Landis feels a happy sense of achievement when he hears McQuaid say "Landis started it". (who says that after they are 10 anyway?)
 
Aug 27, 2012
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McQuaid gets it all right. He's doing all he needs to to keep his gig going.

And if that means relinquishing his position at UCI to put his new mate David Millar in the job so that he (Pat) can keep pulling the strings from behind the scenes then he will do so.
 
Sep 29, 2012
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ultimobici said:
Got to love this by Cyclingnews though!

Strange bedfellows indeed...
"No, because when Millar wrote the book, he wrote it and published it and then I never heard a word about it after that," McQuaid said. "He didn't do a huge amount of promoting of his book and he doesn't to this day. Millar gave an interview on Cyclingnews today and he didn't mention his book. Every time you hear Tyler Hamilton, he's mentioning his book."

There seems to be lots of "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" going on between these two. Maybe not UCI pres, but perhaps Millar can make it onto a committee or board there or something?

This could also be interpreted as "the book was boring as bat dung and came out at a time when Omerta was in full swing, no cracks at all".
 
sairyder said:
I immediately felt like doubling my contribution to the Kimmage fund when i read this - McQuaid clearly can't read the current mood -
you should -- i did!

i put up an audio clip of Kimmage (in his thread), but i'm still looking for the one of him speaking shortly after the news conference. you could practically hear him shaking, he was so angry!

i heard a lot of people speaking out after McQuaid's circus show, but Kimmage was the one who spoke what i was thinking...

must admit, though, i would have really loved hearing from Floyd :p
 
Jul 6, 2012
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They deserve praise and forgiveness for having come clean, but the way they continued to lie after having been caught really bothers me.

That said, McQuaid is the last person in the world who should be making these sorts of statements.
 
Wow, what a load of crap from McQuaid. Sure, I agree Landis and Hamilton are not heroes, just people who eventually did the right thing (and it took lots of courage to do the right thing even then), but that's not what McQuaid's saying. For McQuaid, they never did the right thing. That's despicable. Maybe Hamilton and Landis should just have spoken to the UCI like Jaksche and seen them do nothing with the info?
 
Jul 16, 2012
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thirteen said:
you should -- i did!

i put up an audio clip of Kimmage (in his thread), but i'm still looking for the one of him speaking shortly after the news conference. you could practically hear him shaking, he was so angry!

i heard a lot of people speaking out after McQuaid's circus show, but Kimmage was the one who spoke what i was thinking...

must admit, though, i would have really loved hearing from Floyd :p
done - doubled my contribution to the Kimmage fund -
 
Oct 14, 2012
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Landis could have a case to sue McQuaid for calling him a 'Scumbag'.:D Though I would agree that Landis and Hamilton are not heroes. But the sport needed all this, if it is to have any chance of a better future.
 
Oct 17, 2012
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"No, because when Millar wrote the book, he wrote it and published it and then I never heard a word about it after that," McQuaid said.

Tell me he didn't say that....
 

mountainrman

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Oct 17, 2012
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it is very telling the subconscious implication of the figure of speech- the statement "Landis started it."

To everyone else the problem started around 94 - when most began to get sucked in to EPO and it became impractical to race without it, and UCI failing to clean up the sport after that

To McQuaid it started when the bad news first escaped in a way that even he could no longer sweep it under the table, to him it is about the heinous breach of silence that made the problem undeniable.When landis opened pandoras box which then gave him a problem.

The words " landis started it" says it all.

You have no place in cycling McQuaid. Please leave.

I bet the two faced **** will promote his own biography when he writes it!
I for one will not be reading it, promote it as much you like Mr M.
 
Oct 21, 2012
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That is really unacceptable from Pat. Sure, they aren't heroes, but the only scumbag in the entire matter is Lance, and he continues to damage the sport by denying it.
 
Oct 14, 2012
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Pat McQuaid :

"I do want people coming clean"

Any cyclists for confession.........:D

fatherjack2.jpg
 
Feb 23, 2011
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McQuaid is a fool if he thinks he is home and dry.

LA is now a man with nothing to lose apart from cash watching his empire fall apart while all those around him remain unscathed.

It wouldnt surprise me if a lot of information about the UCI all of a sudden "falls" into Kimmages lap in the next few weeks.

Like I said LA has nothing to lose now but his cash and possibly liberty.
 
To give some balance to all the BS leaving his ugly mouth, can we pinpoint a single good thing he did for cycling himself, where he actually had a choice to do a worse job, for cycling? I honestly can't think of an example. the outrage over his performance of late is too understated. He should pay his salaries and bonusses back, he's done sports a maximum disservice.
 

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