October 23, 2012 by Irish Peloton

Questions for Pat McQuaid

This morning, Pat McQuaid is due to be interviewed by Pat Kenny on RTE Radio One. Yesterday, McQuaid gave some unsatisfactory and vague answers to questions he was asked on various matters. Due to the wide subject matter of the press conference, it was difficult for those present to pursue specific lines of questioning.

I’ve emailed the Pat Kenny show with a list of questions which hopefully Kenny will take on board when interviewing McQuaid. This is the email in its entirety:

Good Morning Pat,

I believe you are due to interview the president of the UCI Pat McQuaid this morning. McQuaid spoke to the press yesterday in light of the ban handed down to Lance Armstrong. McQuaid was required to answer questions from the media but I feel that he wasn’t sufficiently pressed on some of his answers on specific issues.

I implore you to ask McQuaid some of the following questions which cycling fans deserve answers to:

1. It has been established that the UCI do not see a conflict of interest in accepting donations from current riders. But do you not see how everybody else may view this as a conflict of interest and will therefore leave the UCI open to more allegations of corruption?

2. You accepted a donation from Armstrong when you knew he had returned suspicious values when tested, albeit not positive values. Carlos Barredo is currently in the process of being sanctioned due to his blood passport values, suspicious values but not positive. You said yesterday that the UCI would have no problem accepting donations from riders in the future. Would you currently accept a donation from Carlos Barredo? If not, why not?

3. Yesterday you differentiated between David Millar and Tyler Hamilton. Both have doped and been suspended and both have written books about it for personal financial gain. You said that Hamilton is out to ruin the sport but Millar is different because he doesn’t go around promoting his book. Actually, Millar went on a book Tour of the UK and had a book launch at the 2012 Tour de France. He has done a lot of promotion for his book. You say that Hamilton, because he has written a book, is not ‘objective’. But why are you, as president of the UCI, incapable of being objective when it comes to dealing with dopers?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/mcquaid-landis-and-hamilton-are-far-from-heroes

4. You said in your press conference yesterday that “Whenever we saw suspicious tests, especially on important riders, we called them into the UCI and asked them what they were doing”. You are making a distinction between important riders and unimportant riders. How do you make this distinction? And why do you feel it is necessary to treat some riders differently to others?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2012/oct/22/uci-mcquaid-usada-armstrong

5. You were asked yesterday if you intend to continue with the defamation suit against Paul Kimmage. You said that you intend to continue the case because Kimmage had called you, your colleague Hein Verbruggen and the UCI, corrupt. In the USADA report there is testimony stating that Armstrong said to team mates that he had the UCI in his pocket, that He could have positive tests covered up. Armstrong has clearly implied that the UCI is corrupt. Why are you not pursuing a defamation case against Lance Armstrong?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2012/oct/22/uci-mcquaid-usada-armstrong

Pat, these questions need to be asked and cycling fans deserve the answer. Pat McQuaid needs to be held accountable for presiding over the sport during its darkest days. Please ask him these questions.

Thank you,

Dr. Cillian Kelly, cycling fan.