President of the Cycling Governing Body Says Tour is not in Trouble

Filed in archive Biking on July 26, 2007

After two positive tests by Alexander Vinokourov and Cristian Moreni and Michael Rasmussen abrupt exit yesterday (not to mention the ongoing allegations) do you believe the prestige and reverence of the Tour de France is in trouble? According to Pat McQuaid, president of the cycling's governing body, it's not.

"I don't accept that the sport is in crisis. I can see the sport is going through a difficult period but that is a period of change and I can see at the far end of that period the sport will come out of it a lot better and a lot stronger," McQuaid told BBC radio on Thursday.

World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) chief Dick Pound earlier told the BBC that cycling had failed to deal with doping a decade earlier and that "the chickens had come home to roost."

Lorenz Schlaefli, head of the Swiss Cycling Federation, even suggested cycling was powerless to stop a "mafia" like control of the sport and that it was time to start from scratch.

"It's a tough thing to say, but at the moment we have a situation in cycling where the federations are fighting against a mafia made up of those with financial interests in the sport," Schlaefli told Swissinfo.

"It's all down to a question of money and it doesn't just concern the riders - it's the doctors, the physiotherapists, the mechanics, the managers...we have to change everything."

McQuaid, however, said cycling was cleaning up its act.

"We have always had a very, very strong anti-doping stance, we have always been to the forefront in the fight against doping," he said.

"We were the first to introduce blood doping and we are one of only two international sports that does blood testing on the day of competition.

"The moment I was elected president two years ago I admitted there was a doping culture. We are in the process of changing that culture and it will change in time."

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