McQuaid still pursuing re-election despite second nomination failure

International Cycling Union (UCI) president Pat McQuaid will not withdraw his bid to be re-elected despite suffering the embarrassment of the Swiss federation withdrawing their nomination.

The announcement by Swiss Cycling follows Ireland, McQuaid’s home federation, also refusing to support him.

It has led McQuaid’s opponent for the presidency, Britain’s Brian Cookson, to question whether the election should be allowed to go ahead.

McQuaid said however that he will push ahead with nominations from Thailand and Morocco – which need to be validated by the UCI Congress in Florence next month.

“I would remind Brian Cookson and his campaign supporters that the UCI Congress will ultimately decide who should lead the UCI for the next four years,” said added.

“Federations all over the world want me to stand for re-election. I am standing as a candidate for re-election. That is not going to change.

“I am calling on Brian Cookson and his campaign supporters to accept that and to put an end to their concerted attempts to refuse the Congress a choice between two candidates.”

Cookson responded by questioning the validity of the process.

He said on Twitter: “It is rather strange to be challenged on democracy by Pat McQuaid – let’s have a proper democratic election based on the agreed UCI rules.”

He added in a statement: “The important principle in any democracy is that you must respect the rules as they are, not how you’d like them to be.

“My hope remains that we have a democratic process based on the rules of the race when it started rather than those made up half way through.”

Opponents of McQuaid celebrated Swiss Cycling’s decision, but there is some way to go in their quest to remove the Irishman from power.

Skins owner Jaimie Fuller, who funded the Change Cycling Now pressure group, said: “Mr McQuaid should now accept that the writing is on the wall.

“His latest stunt of attempting to introduce retrospective changes to the UCI constitution reflect a man who is both delusional and despotic; his arrogance knows no bounds.”