McQuaid: fans want more than scandal-free Tour
“This year’s Tour probably will go down as one of the cleanest on record,” International Cycling Union president Pat McQuaid admitted ahead of today’s start of the three-week race. “But I don’t think one clean Tour de France is going to change the image and the perception of cycling in a lot of people’s minds. It’s going to take some time but it’s certainly a big step on the way.”
McQuaid praised tour owner Amaury Sports Organisation for taking a tough line on who it has allowed to enter after doping scandals dominated the past two Tours. The Astana team was excluded as punishment for past problems, despite being under new management and signing 2007 Tour winner Alberto Contador last winter. Belgian sprint specialist Tom Boonen has also been banished after testing positive for cocaine in an out-of-competition control.
“There is a genuine effort being made by everyone involved that it will be a clean Tour,” McQuaid said. “They (ASO) are terrific organisers, the best in the world, make no mistake about it. They have been doing it for a long time.”
It was a rare accolade from McQuaid, whose organisation is involved in a feud with ASO about who is to blame for past doping problems and the future of cycling.
ASO decided to ignore UCI rules and stage this year’s Tour — and the Paris-Nice race in March — under the authority of the French national federation and anti-doping agency instead. UCI responded by suspending the French federation.
“For the first time ever the Tour de France is not on the UCI calendar and it saddens me, there’s no doubt about it,” said McQuaid, who has not been invited to attend.
It will be the first Tour he has missed since working for RTÉ 25 years ago, at the start of a golden era for his compatriots Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche, who won the Tour in 1987. McQuaid will be far from France in the first two Tour weeks, preparing for the Olympic cycling programme in Beijing and attending the world junior championships in South Africa. He will return to his Swiss home before the race reaches Paris on July 27.
“Under the current circumstances I don’t think I could accept an invitation from ASO,” he said. “Not just to sit and watch the race. If there was a possibility that it would lead to a calming of the situation and discussions — I don’t say negotiations — then I would, of course.”
The two sides have not shared a public platform since last October, at a launch of the biological passport scheme for riders designed to clean up the sport and restore the confidence of fans and sponsors.
The UCI has steered the €5.2 million project in which more than 850 riders have given a series of blood and urine samples while in training and during races to set the parameters for an individual biological profile.
Laboratory teams can then identify doping offences from abnormal test results rather than seeking and identifying each prohibited substance.
“It has given the message to these guys that it’s over,” McQuaid said. “There is no point in trying to start fiddling with blood nowadays because you’ll be caught.”
McQuaid said the UCI has acted quietly on suspicious results without naming offenders in public during the trial stages. “We’ve seen information on a couple of riders — only a couple — and discussed with the rider and the team the information we’ve seen and decisions have been taken. The UCI is 100% committed to cleaning the sport and having doping-free cycling and ASO need to recognise that. They may do at the end of the Tour.”
YELLOW: Given to the overall race leader, namely the rider who has completed the stages so far in the shortest combined time. The jersey is thought to date back to 1919 and takes its colour from l’Auto the newspaper owned by race founder and sponsor Henri Desgrange.
GREEN: Worn by the leader of the points competition. Points are gathered at intermediate sprints and at stage finishes and rewards sprinters, the burly and aggressive riders who can be seen barreling to the line in a bunch finish.
POLKA-DOT: The King of the Mountains. Like the green jersey, riders succeed in the climbers’ classification by claiming points, in this case for being the first to the top of designated hills and mountains, the greatest number of points being awarded for the hardest ascents.
WHITE: Given to the best-placed rider less than 25-years-old on January 1 of the year, the Tour is ridden.
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