UCI taking the wrong road with Armstrong affair
A Gaelic Games columnist, McGee expressed a few opinions that weren’t very well received in Croke Park .
There were phone calls and letters, and for a short period, it got quite tetchy. But, in the end, it was all sorted out and no harm was done.
Still, after causing grave offence to some of the most powerful people in the GAA, it might be assumed that McGee would be persona non grata around Jones’s Road.
Not so. McGee is currently the head of the Football Review Committee, a body that is working out how the game can be improved.
While McGee might have conveyed opinions that infuriated GAA officialdom, his appointment by GAA officialdom demonstrated their ability to look at the bigger picture.
A veteran journalist, McGee is no weary cynic. Only an absolute enthusiast could pen a book called: ‘Classic Football Matches’.
Beyond his deep affection for the sport, McGee appreciates the realities of what is involved at the highest level as he led Offaly to All-Ireland glory in 1982. In terms of practical and theoretical experience, he ticks all the boxes and is perfectly suited to his post.
Irishman Pat McQuaid, the president of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), could learn a thing or two from the GAA.
McQuaid hails from Tyrone stock in Dungannon.
The eldest of 10 children, he was raised in Dublin.
The UCI is the governing body of professional cycling. During the last few days, UCI lawyers have been examining a 1,000-page dossier that was compiled by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
The report chronicles the doping that took place while Lance Armstrong led the United States Postal Service Team. USADA describes Armstrong’s team as running “the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen”.
The mountain of damning evidence against Armstrong doesn’t exactly cast the UCI in a very positive light.
After all, Armstrong won his seven Tour de France titles during the UCI’s watch, straight under their noses.
While the biggest doping scandal in the history of professional sport has been dominating headlines across the globe, it has emerged McQuaid and former UCI president Hein Verbruggen are suing Irish journalist Paul Kimmage. The former professional cyclist has been subpoenaed to appear in a Swiss court on December 12.
It’s uncommon for libel cases to be taken against journalists. Usually claimants seek damages from the newspaper concerned.
By seeking to damage Kimmage financially, it appears that McQuaid and Versbruggen are waging a personal battle against a man who was made redundant by The Sunday Times last year.
Just last week, Kimmage posted a message on his Twitter account which read: “This conflict with the UCI may seem like a game, and it’s a game I’m enjoying but the truth is that it’s destroying my life.”
As a public relations strategy, the UCI chiefs couldn’t have dreamed up a bigger disaster.
It just so happens that they have picked a row with a journalist who is famous for his battle against doping.
Kimmage’s autobiography ‘Rough Ride’ is an established classic. Unlike Lance Armstrong’s ‘It’s Not About the Bike’, Kimmage didn’t leave out the needles.
He broke the omerta of the peloton, and gave a graphic account of the frequent use of performance-enhancing drugs by professional cyclists.
Kimmage’s book led to him being ostracised by many of his peers. But he remained defiant.
Of course none of the testimony in the USADA report comes as any huge surprise to anyone with more than a passing interest in cycling.
All the literature to have emerged from this era recounts a similar tale. The cyclist who tried to succeed by hard work alone was doomed to failure. Blood transfusions and EPO were considered to be as essential as miles on the road.
‘The Secret Race’ by Tyler Hamilton, ‘Racing Through The Dark’ by David Millar and ‘Riss: Stages of Light and Dark’ by Bjarne Riss are all gripping accounts of how cyclists stooped to conquer.
While these books provide many fascinating details, the real surprise is how anyone ever managed to get caught. Beating the testers was easy.
The cyclists were as much victims as they were culprits. Yes, they were casualties of their own ambition. But what do you do when playing a game where the cheaters win, and it’s easy to cheat? Given the failure of the UCI to effectively police its own sport, the body’s reputation has taken a battering. Even now, the UCI is still relying on others organisations to help them play catch up.
And while the UCI celebrated Armstrong as their golden champion, it was lone voices like Paul Kimmage and his The Sunday Times colleague, David Walsh who kept raising awkward questions about the Texan.
Because of the conviction of a few good men, the sport of cycling now has a chance of cleansing itself. The next generation of young, hopeful cyclists will not necessarily equate the syringe with success.
But how are Pat McQuaid and his predecessor Hein Verbruggen treating Paul Kimmage, one of the few journalists who consistently crusaded against doping and the Armstrong myth? Yes, that’s right. They’re hauling him into court. Pat McQuaid would be better advised to invite his fellow Irishman to the UCI’s offices in Switzerland and offer him a job.
