Exclusive - UCI President Wants Drug Cheat Armstrong to Help Cycling

(ATR) Embattled UCI president Pat McQuaid tells Around the Rings he now regrets saying Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling and is urging the disgraced rider to help the sport.

In an exclusive interview with ATR, the Irishman also reveals that if he is not re-elected by the UCI congress next week cycling will not be represented on the IOC for many years to come, which would harm the sport’s quest for new disciplines at the Olympics.

After the UCI accepted the findings of the United States Anti-Doping Agency's (Usada) investigation into systematic doping, Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life by cycling’s governing body in October 2012.

"One statement which I said right at the very beginning [of a Geneva press conference] was that there is no place in cycling for Lance Armstrong. I would say now that that was said in a period of high emotion just following the USADA affair," McQuaid said.

"I wouldn’t repeat the same sentence now. I would say there is a place for Lance Armstrong if he wants to try to help cycling."

McQuaid, who is campaigning to be re-elected for a third term as UCI boss, said he had not been in contact with Armstrong since August 2012.

The Irish IOC member said Armstong had a role to play in helping the UCI clean house.

"I am not talking about bringing him back and letting him ride a bike. But as part of this process that we are doing if he can help the sport and do something good for the sport then I would listen to him yes," the 64-year-old said.

He added: "Everybody said that on Oprah Winfrey show he didn’t tell everything. So at some stage or other he may want to tell everything and that everything may be of benefit to us and the sport. I don’t see why we shouldn’t listen."

McQuaid said he was committed to an independent audit into the allegations against the UCI in the USADA report "and a process whereby individuals who have something to offer, something to help or want to get off their chest".

He said that at the end of the process "we can draw a line in the sand and say right that’s it. Forget about the past, let’s talk about the present and future".

Fears for Cycling and IOC

One of the central themes of McQuaid’s campaign message focuses on his role representing cycling on the IOC.

If he is not re-elected at the UCI congress in Florence on Sept. 27, cycling loses its only IOC member.

With Britain already having four IOC members, IAAF vice president Sebastian Coe is in line to be the next one in 2015 if, as expected, he is elected as the Lamine Diack’s successor.

McQuaid said if British Cycling chief Brian Cookson, his UCI presidential challenger, was chosen to replace him at the helm of the UCI, he would have "no chance" of gaining IOC membership for up to eight years.

"We will have a period, quite a long period I would predict, without any IOC member. I think that is a danger for cycling," he said, noting that the IOC will be revising the Olympic sports after Rio 2016.

The UCI pushed for the new disciplines of BMX freestyle and elimination mountain biking to be introduced at the Rio Games before the IOC decided that it wouldn’t expand the program a few months ago.

"It’s much more important to be a member and have the influence in there. If the [UCI] congress decides not to elect me they are also deciding they don’t want that influence," he said. "It’s not scaremongering which Brian has said it is, it is reality. It will be part of my message next week.

"We are ready to bring those innovative, youth-oriented events in," he added, claiming the lobbying effort to do so would be undermined by a vote for Cookson.

"It is a genuine fear that that could happen make no mistake about it. It is not to be taken lightly. So for that reason I would think congress would need a very, very strong reason to change the leadership at the moment," McQuaid emphasized.

Confident of Re-election

McQuaid’s battle with Cookson has become a war of words in recent weeks, with a dispute over the nominations procedure piling pressure on the Irishman.

Last Friday, the UCI executive board rejected requests from USA Cycling and national federations from Russia, Canada, Finland and Algeria to allow the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to rule on whether he could be nominated for election by Thailand and Morocco. Swiss Cyling and his own Irish federation had earlier withdrawn their backing.

McQuaid told ATR that he did not influence the UCI executive committee’s decision. "I stayed away from that decision completely," he said, adding that he was travelling to Buenos Aires to attend the IOC Session at the time.

"People have to ask themselves why there is such a big effort to eliminate me before the congress. I think my opposition knows I have the support they don’t," he said.

In Florence, 42 voting delegates will either decide to re-elect McQuaid, who said it will "definitely" be his last term, or to choose a new president in Cookson.

"I think he and his followers are obviously looking for a coronation," he said.

"I feel confident that when the congress meets I will be re-elected," McQuaid added, declining to estimate how many votes he might get.

Amid mounting pressure to quit in the wake of the Armstrong scandal, McQuaid has steadfastly refused to go.

"I don’t feel that I should step aside because of what Lance Armstrong did. First of all Lance Armstrong was here prior to me becoming president. I am standing on the work I have done over the past eight years as president, that’s what I should be judged on," he said.

He added: "I have completely changed the landscape over the past eight years in relation to doping and brought in what is now probably the most stringent anti-doping program of any international federation in the world.

"There is a common acceptance that riders are racing and winning clean."

McQuaid and Cookson will present their cases at the European Cycling Union congress in Zurich next Sunday. The UCI chief is not billing it as a major milestone, but in the final days before the election it could have a significant impact on his chances of re-election.

Reported by Mark Bisson

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