UPDATED - IOC Honorary Member Cleared of Accepting Armstrong Bribes

(ATR) IOC honorary member Hein Verbruggen tells Around the Rings he is "satisfied" with a report into cycling’s doping past, despite heavy criticism of his leadership of the UCI during Lance Armstrong’s era of domination.

The International Cycling Union’s leadership, including ex-president Pat McQuaid, comes under fire for a series of failings from 1999 to 2005 when drug cheat Lance Armstrong won seven Tour de France titles. He was stripped of those titles in 2012.

The 227-page Cycling Independent Reform Commission (CIRC) report released Monday said Verbruggen was an "autocratic" UCI president, while his successor McQuaid was "weak".

Clearing both of corruption, the report said they failed to act on the UCI’s own anti-doping regulations and defended and offered preferential treatment to disgraced U.S. cyclist Armstrong. However, the commission found no evidence to support allegations that Armstrong paid to cover up alleged positive tests in 2001.

Speaking to ATR on Monday, Verbruggen defended his leadership of the UCI and relationship with Armstrong.

"I am very satisfied that the report confirms what I have always said. There was no corruption, complicity or cover-ups in that [Armstrong] case or in any other case," the Dutchman said.

"All these conspiracy theories have been debunked. For me, that is the most important thing."

CIRC’s report, based on interviews with 174 riders, teams, national federations, anti-doping officials and law enforcement agencies, accuses the UCI under Verbruggen and McQuaid of lacking good governance in the fight against doping. This is said to have shattered the credibility of the federation and cycling, an Olympic sport.

Verbruggen told ATR that the commission’s criticism of him was unfair, pointing to the way he had grown the federation and sport since he took the presidency in 1991 - which included a commitment to anti-doping policies but with limited resources.

"The commission have not detected any wrongdoings. They are going after me saying the doping fight was not adequate. I have to remind them that’s not a very fair statement," he said. However, the report findings reveal a litany of failings.

"There was no WADA [at the time], no guiding party. The commission admits several times that we were not that bad... and better than other federations at certain moments," he said, adding that the UCI had started from nothing in 1992 and by 2005 had good anti-doping policies in place.

But he admitted the UCI made "certain mistakes along the road".

CIRC blasts his preferential treatment of Armstrong. It said there was "a tacit exchange of favors" between the UCI leadership and Armstrong, "and they presented a commonfront against anyone who dared to attack him.

"The UCI leadership did not know how to differentiate between Armstrong the hero, seven-time winner of the Tour, cancer survivor, huge financial and media success and a role model for thousands of fans, from Lance Armstrong the cyclist, a member of the peloton with the same rights and obligations as any other professional cyclist," the report said.

"Yes we had a very good relationship with him," Verbruggen admits.

"CIRC is not suggesting that the UCI deliberately allowed doping in the sport That’s what counts. The rest… that I was close to Armstrong or anybody… give me a break. That’s the only thing that counts."

IOC Response

"This is a frank and open report that supports the IOC goal to protect the clean athletes. We welcome the UCI’s commitment to tackling past abuses and putting in place future processes," said Ugur Erdener, chair of the IOC Medical Commission.

"The findings of the investigation put the clean athletes at the centre. The recommendations are not only in line with the reforms of Olympic Agenda 2020 but also with the new WADA World Anti-Doping Code particularly with the emphasis on the use of intelligence and re-analysis.

He added: "The IOC welcomes the determination of the UCI to stop doping in sport and appreciates the many steps they have already taken in the recent past which, according to the report, are showing some positive effect. We trust that the UCI under the presidency of Brian Cookson will take even further measures as recommended by the report."

UCI Boss Cookson Ready to Act

The CIRC report, commissioned by the UCI, emerged after a 13-month investigation.

UCI president Brian Cookson welcomed the results: "Very few, if any sports, have opened themselves up to this level of independent scrutiny and while the CIRC report on the past is hard to read for those of us who love our sport, I do believe that cycling will emerge better and stronger from it.

"I said from the outset that the UCI would publish the CIRC’s report and recommendations to ensure transparency and that is exactly what we have done today."

The Briton said it was clear from the report that in the past the UCI "suffered severely from a lack of good governance" with individuals taking crucial decisions alone, many of which undermined anti-doping efforts. The UCI put itself in an extraordinary position of proximity to certain riders and wasted a lot of its time and resources in open conflict with organisations such as the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), he said.

"It is also clear that the UCI leadership interfered in operational decisions on anti-doping matters and these factors, as well as many more covered in the report, served to erode confidence in the UCI and the sport."

Cookson restated his commitment to anti-doping and transparency that helped him secure the UCI presidency in 2013, which include establishing new governance measures such as a revamped ethics commission and introducing new anti-doping rules with longer sanctions, from 2 to 4 years.

"I am absolutely determined to use the CIRC’s report to ensure that cycling continues the process of fully regaining the trust of fans, broadcasters and all the riders that compete clean," Cookson added. "I shall be giving some more detail on how we will implement recommendations from the report during the course of this week."

Reported by Mark Bisson

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