Pat McQuaid

Pat McQuaid ( born September 5, 1949 in Dublin) is a former Irish cyclist and was Cycliste 2005-2013 President of the International Cycling Union Union Internationale (UCI ).

Sports career

Pat McQuaid grew up as the eldest of ten siblings in an Irish cycling family. His father Jim and his younger brothers Paul and Darach were active cyclists. Two other brothers, Kieron and Oliver, started as a cyclist at Olympic Games.

In his time as a racer McQuaid was a strong sprinter. His achievements include winning the Irish road championship in 1974, the Ireland tour in 1975 and 1976. In the Summer Olympic Games in Montreal in 1976 he was not allowed to compete because he violated by participating in a bike race in South Africa against the Olympic boycott by the then apartheid regime.

Career as a functionary and coaches

From 1981 to 1984, Pat McQuaid as a coach working with the Irish Cycling Federation and from 1994 to 1998 its chairman. In September 2005, McQuaid was elected chairman of the UCI. He was considered by his predecessor Hein Verbruggen as successor enjoyed protection as a candidate and therefore favored. Since 2010 he is member of the International Olympic Committee.

His activities as cycling functionary is very controversial: He is accused of the UCI not credible against doping position and, in particular, that he had tried to cover up the doping case of Alberto Contador later disqualified at the Tour de France 2010. Among his sharpest critics are the three-time Tour de France winner Greg Lemond, the former President of the German Cycling Federation Sylvia Schenk and the Luxembourg Association President Jean raining Another critic is the Irish journalist and former professional cyclist Paul Kimmage, who like McQuaid to an Irish " belongs cycling dynasty " and McQuaid, in his own words, knows, since he was a baby. Kimmage has been sued by McQuaid, Verbruggen and the UCI because of its corruption charges in late 2012 before a Swiss court. In February 2014 McQuaid withdrew the complaint against Kimmage after the UCI had made under its new president Brian Cookson this already at its office in September 2013.

In September 2013 serious corruption allegations against McQuaid and his predecessor were in a 54 -page dossier collected: through witnesses and documents was evidence that they had demanded from a team owner € 250,000 continue to have tried to financial compensation, the positive doping test of Alberto Contador to cover up in 2010 and the suspended in 2013 due to many years of Doping Lance Armstrong repeatedly favored, particularly around the anti-doping doping regulations to allow Armstrong's comeback at the Tour Down Under 2009. McQuaid said the allegations were " false and not by a spark of evidence " supported.

When choosing the UCI President in the road cycling world championship in Florence on September 27, 2013 he defeated his rival Brian Cookson, who was nominated by the British Association.