McQuaid confident amidst complaints

IRELAND’S Pat McQuaid is confident that he will be president of cycling’s governing body, the UCI, before the end of the month despite the turbulence created in recent weeks by the former German Olympic athlete Sylvia Schenk.

When things got really rough last week the outgoing president Hein Verbruggen, who supports McQuaid's bid, said that he was prepared to put himself forward again.

It appears that this won't be necessary and McQuaid will become the first Irishman to take up such a position of power in world sport since Lord Killanin became President of the International Olympic Committee back in the 1970s.