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Cycling Ireland EGM votes against nominating Pat McQuaid for 3rd term as UCI president

Irishman's sole hope now rests with Swiss Cycling - but its nomination of him faces a legal challenge...

An Emergency General Meeting (EGM) of Cycling Ireland has voted against nominating Pat McQuaid for a third term as UCI president. The news comes a day after McQuaid came under fire at by all accounts was a heated meeting of the UCI Management Committee in Bergen, Norway.

While 74 delegates voted in favour of backing McQuaid at today's Cycling Ireland EGM meeting in Dublin, 91 voted against it.

Cycling Ireland had previously nominated McQuaid when he first stood for the UCI presidency in 2005 and again ahead of his re-election in 2009.

The EGM was convened after the original decision of the national governing body in April to nominate McQuaid for a third term was overturned on a technicality.

The backing of McQuaid led to an outcry from the body's membership and the sole member of the board to vote against it, vice-president Anto Moran, resigned.

Instead of reconvening the board to hold the vote again, it was decided to put the issue to Cycling Ireland's membership.

Ahead of today's vote, Ireland's two greatest cyclists, Stephen Roche and Sean Kelly, both made public statements in support of McQuaid, but their interventions clearly failed to sway enough delegates.

One of those present at the EGM, Derek Troy, provided a live account of proceedings on his @flammecast Twitter feed, outlining some of the arguments put both in favour of and against McQuaid’s nomination by those present.

From his tweets, it appears that overt hostility was shown by some towards the less familiar faces there who had turned up to vote against the nomination.

He added that McQuaid, who was not himself present, had enjoyed “lots of vocal support,” and pointed out that the level of backing for McQuaid at the EGM was unsurprising given that he “has slapped a lot of backs and has a long long long history in cycling in Ireland.”

McQuaid's sole hope for nomination to stand against British Cycling president Brian Cookson now rests with Swiss Cycling, the national federation of the country in which the UCI is based and the Irishman is resident.

Swiss Cycling announced it had nominated McQuaid last month, but that decision is itself the subject of a legal challenge from three of its members - one-time national coach Kurt Buergi, ex board member Mattia Galli, and former pro cyclist Patrick Calcagni.

The organisation has announced that it has convened an arbitration hearing to address the issue.

However, there has been speculation that McQuaid may not even be in ofice by the time the election takes place in September.

At yesterday's UCI management committee meeting in Bergen, committee member Mike Plant of the United States managed to have a dossier that had been compiled on McQuaid with the help of private investigators discussed, despite attempts by the UCI president to block it, as he had done on Thurdsday, the first day of the meeting.

The contents of the dossier have not yet been made public, reports Telegraph.co.uk.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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24 comments

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Leviathan | 10 years ago
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Thank you Ireland.
'500 years of peace and democracy; and what have the Swiss ever given us?... The cockoo clock'*

*Cockoo clock actually invented by Germans.

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NeilXDavis | 10 years ago
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Does Roche have any credibility left at all? - his is now an opinion that I just don't want to hear.

Dont they understand that Irish cycling will actually have grown in respect around the world for this stance.

Oh and more importantly than the whole UCI / doping..in fact more important than ANY current world affair....WHY OH WHY is Kelly STILL on Eurosport?. Loved him on the bike but in the studio he actually makes me want to watch something else!...bowls perhaps...

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georgee | 10 years ago
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Good to alleged cheats giving him backing, says it all really... The fact he keeps fighting is a good thing, the more coverage of this farce, the better chance of getting the whole thing out in the open and shits like verbruggen taken down as well.

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Decster | 10 years ago
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McQuaid is the figure head of a rotten insitution. Other heads should roll.

If Cookson doesn't clean up the whole organisation top to bottom while making anti-doping independent nothing will change.

Cookson is part of the old boys club so dont expect anything to change except maybe a more professional approach to not shoing the incompetence and wheeling dealing going on in the name of pro cycling.

Cookson not so long ago was giving his backing to McQuaid so I hardly expect Cookson to do anything different.

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Matt_S | 10 years ago
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I wouldn't read too much into the Kelly thing. He was probably asked "Do you think McPaid should be booted out?", and he responded "Certainly not..." Which is pretty much the only thing he says (apart from "on the rivet", and "making the calculation") during Eurosport commentary.

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pwake replied to Matt_S | 10 years ago
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Matt_S wrote:

I wouldn't read too much into the Kelly thing. He was probably asked "Do you think McPaid should be booted out?", and he responded "Certainly not..." Which is pretty much the only thing he says (apart from "on the rivet", and "making the calculation") during Eurosport commentary.

 3

True. When he was riding Kelly was noted for nodding in response to a question during a radio interview!

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Grizzerly replied to Matt_S | 10 years ago
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I think he would have said " Certaintly not", I'm sure Sean has never said "certainly" in his life...  1

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bigant | 10 years ago
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I believe 32 of the delegates who supported McQuade had double votes (see velonews) so it was actually 91 to 42

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FMOAB | 10 years ago
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Isn't democracy wonderful!

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fatty | 10 years ago
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So 74 delegates voted in favour of sweeping doping issues under the carpet for another term? Is that how this should be interpreted...?

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notfastenough | 10 years ago
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Surprised how many voted for him. I probably shouldn't be though, because regardless of everything else, the one thing he has proven to be good at is charming his chums and making deals.

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Alb | 10 years ago
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Stephen Roche and Sean Kelly ought to be ashamed of themselves, though hardly surprising in the slightest.

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jollygoodvelo replied to Alb | 10 years ago
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Alb wrote:

Stephen Roche and Sean Kelly ought to be ashamed of themselves, though hardly surprising in the slightest.

Mild surprise about Kelly, but not surprised at all about Roche...

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pwake replied to jollygoodvelo | 10 years ago
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Gizmo_ wrote:
Alb wrote:

Stephen Roche and Sean Kelly ought to be ashamed of themselves, though hardly surprising in the slightest.

Mild surprise about Kelly, but not surprised at all about Roche...

Shouldn't be surprised about Kelly; he and Pat go back a long way. In fact, Kelly raced in apartheid South Africa with him. Kelly's eye, number one! Pretty appropriate because that's who they are looking out for...

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paulfg42 replied to jollygoodvelo | 10 years ago
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Gizmo_ wrote:
Alb wrote:

Stephen Roche and Sean Kelly ought to be ashamed of themselves, though hardly surprising in the slightest.

Mild surprise about Kelly, but not surprised at all about Roche...

Could you explain or point me in the direction of further info?

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jollygoodvelo replied to paulfg42 | 10 years ago
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paulfg42 wrote:
Gizmo_ wrote:
Alb wrote:

Stephen Roche and Sean Kelly ought to be ashamed of themselves, though hardly surprising in the slightest.

Mild surprise about Kelly, but not surprised at all about Roche...

Could you explain or point me in the direction of further info?

I didn't know the background between Kelly and McQuaid mentioned above, which is interesting. But Roche is (sadly) on my list of 'former cyclists whose achievements don't quite add up' - though not with any specific evidence not in the public domain.

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Decster replied to jollygoodvelo | 10 years ago
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Gizmo_ wrote:
paulfg42 wrote:
Gizmo_ wrote:
Alb wrote:

Stephen Roche and Sean Kelly ought to be ashamed of themselves, though hardly surprising in the slightest.

Mild surprise about Kelly, but not surprised at all about Roche...

Could you explain or point me in the direction of further info?

I didn't know the background between Kelly and McQuaid mentioned above, which is interesting. But Roche is (sadly) on my list of 'former cyclists whose achievements don't quite add up' - though not with any specific evidence not in the public domain.

That an Italian court judge named Roche as a client of Dr Conconi's (he taught Ferarri) and an epo user doesn't quite add up to what?

Will not be surprised to see a Sky positive at this years TdF compliments of McQ/Hein.

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fatty replied to Decster | 10 years ago
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Quote:

Will not be surprised to see a Sky positive at this years TdF compliments of McQ/Hein.

Agree 100%! That's exactly how the system works with those two. Choose the positives to prove a political point (quite a few Russian positives lately for example...)

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Gkam84 | 10 years ago
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WOW, I really thought the margin would be alot further than that, Just over 55% (55.15%) voting against. I was expecting to see above 70%.

It shows that some of the voters still think Pat is the man for the job....OR, they just want an Irishman in charge? But hang on....does he even want to be Irish anymore, I'm sure he would change his nationality to anything if it meant him holding onto the UCI Presidents seat.

He's already trying to worm his way to be nominated as Swiss....That's hopefully going to fall flat on its face and leave the door wide open for Cookson to walk it.

But then, he'll just find himself another loop hole in these made up rules and get nominated as a member of the Rwandan cycling federation. He's not going to give up easily, but its about time he saw, he's NOT wanted as head of the UCI, he will get NO choosy honorary number like his sidekick Verbruggen and they will both be out on their ear.

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Farky | 10 years ago
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Im an Irishman through and through and have been overly proud of Irish cycling and its ability to have a man senior and respected enough to be at the top of the UCI.

Its said a lot for our wee island that we can produce officials of that calibre.

Voting Pat McQuaid out has NOTHING to do with being Irish or nto wanting our federation represented at the highest level.

It should NOT come down to the biased votes of a presidents own country/federation to vote him back in for election.
As reigning President, it should be down to the stakeholders or members to decide fi they are happy with their current president.

We can be thankful that the Irish, in the main, have been honest with their voting, putting nationalism aside and voting on the future of cycling in general.

It should never have come to this, Pat shouldve done more to resist the obvious political interference and made a stand to protect cycling from itself where required. Hopefully this can now be done.

Too little to late - thats Pats only failure.

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Critchio replied to Farky | 10 years ago
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Farky wrote:

Im an Irishman through and through and have been overly proud of Irish cycling and its ability to have a man senior and respected enough to be at the top of the UCI.

Its said a lot for our wee island that we can produce officials of that calibre.

Voting Pat McQuaid out has NOTHING to do with being Irish or nto wanting our federation represented at the highest level.

It should NOT come down to the biased votes of a presidents own country/federation to vote him back in for election.
As reigning President, it should be down to the stakeholders or members to decide fi they are happy with their current president.

We can be thankful that the Irish, in the main, have been honest with their voting, putting nationalism aside and voting on the future of cycling in general.

It should never have come to this, Pat shouldve done more to resist the obvious political interference and made a stand to protect cycling from itself where required. Hopefully this can now be done.

Too little to late - thats Pats only failure.

Your final sentence boggles my mind. You are talking about a man that that was banned from entering the 1976 Olympics after being caught racing in South Africa,whern he was in breach of anti-apartheid sporting boycott, entering the race using a false name. How many other pro cyclists did that? One?

He is then part of the Armstrong scandal. His earlier behaviour really spelled out what type of person he is. He does not care about cycling any more. He cares about himself and his current lifestyle and the threat of losing that is starting to show. Ive said it before, if he truly cared about the future of cycling he would have resigned in the wake of the Armstrong mess.

The votes McQ did get are down to mutual back scratching and the "old boys club". It just shows how deep this ugly scar on cyling goes. Too little too late? Pffffffff...

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Rupert49 | 10 years ago
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Pat will fight and twist and turn and use every trick in the book and others to try to remain President, what sort of a future does he have if he looses?

Would you employ him? I certainly would not

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timothy | 10 years ago
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it's not over yet, McQuaid is as slippery and deluded as Tony Blair. We underestimate him and those that have benefited from his involvement in the UCI. It also speaks volumes that Roche and Kelly supported him.  39

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The Rumpo Kid | 10 years ago
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Well done (most of) Ireland. I can't wait for McQuaid's paranoiac response. Part of me would have preferred to see Pat lose a Presidential Election (by a landslide), but you can't have everything, unless of course the land of the Toblerone finds some way of backing him.

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