The UCI has confirmed that its president Pat McQuaid will announce the governing body's position in the Lance Armstrong case at a press conference in Geneva at 1pm local time on Monday.
The options are that the UCI will either ratify in full the United States Anti Doping Agency's decision to ban Armstrong for life and strip him of results including his seven Tour de France titles, or seek to challenge some or all of it at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The governing body itself is implicated in USADA's Reasoned Decision in helping to cover up a suspect test for EPO that USADA says Armstrong gave during the 2001 Tour de Suisse, and has also come under strong criticism for its decision to accept donations from the cyclist totalling $125,000.
With the fallout from the US Postal scandal continuing to generate negative headlines for the wrong reasons, including today's decision by Rabobank to end its sponsorship of professional teams, many within the sport are calling on the UCI to show strong leadership. Monday's press conference will be keenly watched to see if they do just that.
-1024x680.jpg "“Clear anti-cyclist bias”: Lawsuit filed against Toronto police after cop doored cyclist… before ticketing rider over incident")
9 thoughts on “UCI president Pat McQuaid to announce position on Lance Armstrong case on Monday”
I wonder, if all they had to
I wonder, if all they had to announce was “We’re accepting the USADA report” would that need a press conference with Pat McQuaid to answer questions from the press? That makes me wonder will they be announcing an appeal to CAS?
There is a scene from the
There is a scene from the film ‘Serenity’ that perfectly suits what should be said to Pat McQuaid:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379786/quotes?qt=qt0433117
We are all waiting with bated
We are all waiting with bated breath here.Just to piss everyone off he may go to arbitration to simply drag out the inevitable. You would have to pull every legal loop hole out of the book to justify your position as governing authority and usurp USADA. Heads will have to roll and with that old fart Verbruggen, I can not see them doing a Dylan Thomas and going gently into that good night….the evidence is overwhelming nonetheless. 😕
Bad news I think. Certainly
Bad news I think. Certainly if Paddy was going to step down he wouldn’t announce it in person at the press conference. So I think cycling is stuck with him.
I hope it’s to announce they ratify USADA’s decision, Verbruggen will walk and they will commence a root and branch review, ultimately with the aim of setting up an entirely independent anti-doping body for cycling. Verbruggen the sacrificial lamb but no real change I fear.
Let’s wait and see shall we
Let’s wait and see shall we (and leave VerBruggens age out of it whist we’re at it) – But anything less than an acknowledgement of partial responsibility for what went on and a serious and substantive review of UCI’s future stance on doping response just will not wash and will further add to calls for Pat to move over.
UCI have no jurisdiction in
UCI have no jurisdiction in this case – they derogate the responsibility for drug testing through WADA to USADA. Failure to act on the findings would be a fundamental failure of their responsibilities – but let’s not let due process get in the way of egos and ca$h-stuffed envelopes.
monty dog: I don’t think that
monty dog: I don’t think that that is true. UCI are in direct control of anti-doping at many large events I think. E.g. the WADA report on when they acted as Independent Observer at a recent tour, available in the USADA Armstrong files, notes the anti-doping chaperones are UCI and usually former commissaires – who tend to have been racers themselves back in their day, and hence somewhat sympathetic to the current riders!
Oddly enough, I think the
Oddly enough, I think the chances of an appeal to CAS are quite high because Lance didn’t go to arbitration.
I only have two days to read the whole lot, perhaps I should give up on sleep?
It’s possible McQ will accept
It’s possible McQ will accept the USADA report as they are up to their eyeballs with implications of complicity. Acceptance will at least give them time go over every possible bit of evidence against them, don’t forget there’s another tidal wave of shite coming shortly from an investigative body in Italy, it’s reckoned to be of tsunami proportions.