UCI chief denies cover-up
Associated Press
SINGAPORE
The president of the International Cycling Union defended his organization Tuesday against accusations it covered up a positive doping test from Lance Armstrong and questioned the motives of a U.S. probe into professional cycling.
UCI chief Pat McQuaid also said that neither American prosecutors nor Interpol have asked for anything from his group.
Investigators have contacted sponsors and reportedly former teammates of Armstrong, who dominated cycling with seven Tour de France wins from 1999 to 2005. Their work gained global attention after disgraced rider Floyd Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour victory, admitted doping and implicated Armstrong and other competitors.
McQuaid wondered whether the federal probe was based on facts or the product of Landis seeking revenge against the cycling community following the taint on his career.
“To some extent, when you look at the way the investigation has come about, you have to ask whether there is a genuine investigation or whether there are vendettas going on here,” McQuaid said.“From that point of view, it’s unfortunate that people who could have approached this in a completely different way didn’t do so. They just went public.
“From that view, it’s an investigation that has taken place in the public arena, which was unnecessary.”
Landis also has implicated the UCI in his allegations, the latest of which were published in The Wall Street Journal last month. Landis has claimed that Armstrong tested positive for EPO at the Tour de Suisse in 2002 and paid off then-UCI president Hein Verbruggen to keep it quiet. Armstrong won the 2001 Swiss race, but did not compete there in 2002.
McQuaid, who has been UCI chief since 2005, doubted the U.S. authorities would be in touch with the UCI, because “this is not a doping investigation as such.”