McQuaid brands Landis "a liar" over cover-up claims

UCI president Pat McQuaid has responded to Floyd Landis’ accusations that the Irishman had protected top riders from doping charges, branding him a “liar” reports the Irish Independent.

Landis made the incendiary claims on German TV channel ARD on Sunday night, claiming that McQuaid and his predecessor Hein Verbruggen had covered up positive doping tests among star riders in a bid to protect the sport.

McQuaid told the Irish Independent that he is considering legal action against Landis. He said: "It's very easy for Floyd Landis to make statements like that with no proof. Also, the journalist who interviewed him should have asked him for proof.

"He has already proven to be a liar and continues to be a liar. There is no truth in it, absolutely no truth in it."

McQuaid said that it would be impossible for him to protect riders as the doping test result documents that he saw were exactly the same as those seen by the World Anti Doping Authority.

"All you have to do is look at the amount of big names that have been found positive over the years to show that I don't protect anybody and the UCI doesn't protect anybody," McQuaid told the newspaper.

He said: "Landis won the Tour and we went after him, Rasmussen was a Tour leader and we went after him, and now Contador. Landis talks about clenbuterol being used. We've gone after Contador with only 50 pictograms of clenbuterol in his system. This again proves that Landis' statement is complete fabrication."