Tag: McQuaid

The chief of International Cycling Union, Pat McQuaid, recently stated that cycling has not been the same. According to him it has moved on though Lance Armstrong’s case details didn’t seem to tell that. There had been protests against UCI for not accepting any responsibilities for the ongoing doping culture, but McQuaid consistently told that UCI had nothing to do with it.

Now that Armstrong’s case details have been given to UCI by USADA, the cycling world thought that McQuaid would take some responsibilities. But on the contrary he told that those black days were gone. He accepted the fact that the sport had suffered a huge blow due to this doping, especially because of this Lance Armstrong case. It also affected the image of this widely popular sport. But the sport is now free from all those ill-cultures and moving quite nicely, McQuaid argues.

The USADA has produced their details regarding Armstrong’s ban and it says that Armstrong followed the “most sophisticated” paths of doping though Armstrong himself continued to reject this report. Now the ball is in UCI’s court as they are yet to react to this report. The report also puts a big question mark on UCI itself as it says that Armstrong was able to dodge the doping tests consistently and he also bribed to keep his positive test secret.

McQuaid accepted that the report reached them. But he didn’t speak a word about their possible reply. He said that it would be unfair to comment as the lawyers haven’t come up with any decisions. Whatever might be the decision of UCI, a number of former and present cyclists wish Armstrong to be punished in an exemplary manner. It can be said that if UCI chooses to oppose USADA’s report and takes a stand in support of Armstrong it will definitely worsen the scenario, as well as the sport may be, too.