I just found this random interview with McQuaid, did not find the interviewer's name so slightly unsubstantiated.
http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:LaYZkwYHmZAJ:www.pr-inside.com/feud-filled-tenure-as-uci-chief-has-r485152.htm+pr-inside+kuwait+uci&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2
AIGLE, Switzerland (AP) - Cycling chief Pat McQuaid has a nuclear bunker in his Swiss home. Given the conflict gripping his sport, some in his position would be tempted to hide there.
But McQuaid, a former Ireland cycling champion, does not shy from the controversies that have marked his tenure.
«Some good decisions, some bad decisions. But
at the end of the day, I make them,» McQuaid told The Associated Press in a recent interview from his UCI office in Aigle.
When McQuaid took over from Hein Verbruggen as president of the International Cycling Union in September 2005, the sport was just coming out of a period of total dominance created by Lance Armstrong and his seven straight Tour de France wins.
In the nearly three years since Armstrong has retired, cycling has been embroiled in an escalating series of feuds and doping scandals. McQuaid has been dragged into a bitter dispute with the Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), the group that organizes the Tour de France and the Paris-Nice race.
The ASO accused him of poor stewardship in the Michael Rasmussen affair during last year's Tour and this year has sparked a feud by holding Paris-Nice outside the UCI's rules.
The image of the sport _ already rocked by doping scandals _ has taken a major blow and sponsors are backing away. Team CSC announced on Thursday it would not renew its sponsorship deal beyond this season.
McQuaid joined the UCI's management committee in 1997 and six years later was nominated to take over from Verbruggen.
At the UCI Congress in Madrid on Sept. 23, 2005, 42 voting delegates gave him a 31-11 majority over challengers Darshan Singh and Gregorio Moreno.
McQuaid heads a 14-man committee that meets each January, June and September. For legal decisions, he depends on a team of five lawyers.
«In my 2œ years on the board, there has never been a vote, everybody's agreed by consensus,» McQuaid said. «When it gets down to legal decisions it's the lawyers here that would advise me.
He sums up his role as being the «executive who presides over the running of day-to-day business.
But to some observers it is still Verbruggen _ president from 1991-2005 _ who does that.
«I am accused that (Verbruggen) is behind me pulling the strings, and that is not the case,» McQuaid said.
He credits Verbruggen with rescuing cycling by implementing contracts, minimum salaries and pensions.
«I know how the structure of cycling was. The amount of black money in the sport,» McQuaid said. «With so much under the counter and so much on your contract ... the rest you got in a brown envelope. That was rampant in the '80s.
As McQuaid speaks, dozens of riders train on the UCI's indoor velodrome, whizzing past on the steeped-banked oval track directly below his window.
McQuaid recently had a go _ and remembers «sweat pouring off» as he tried to stay upright on the curved banks.
In his cycling prime, McQuaid could have conquered them in his sleep.
McQuaid's father, Jim McQuaid, was a leading Irish international cyclist, and his six brothers all raced.
They lived in Glasnevin, close to where Dublin City University is based. A huge cemetery now jostles for space with housing estates, national botanic gardens, parks and Dublin pubs.
One of McQuaid's two photographs in his office is of his father helping a 6-year-old Pat ride a brand new bike imported from Italy. The other is of McQuaid's grown children, three sons and daughter.
He never attained the heights reached by his fellow Irishmen: Stephen Roche won the Tour in 1987 and Sean Kelly ranked No. 1 in the world. McQuaid won the Tour of Ireland in 1975 and 1976.
As a successful road-race promoter, he drew big names to the Kellogg's City Center race in Dublin, and coached Ireland's cyclists at the 1984 Olympics before presiding over the Irish Cycling Federation until 1998.
That was his springboard into the UCI, where he hopes to be elected for another four-year term next year.
Does he think he's done a good job
«I'm happy with the job I'm doing, because I see the sport developing around the world and that is a major objective of mine,» he said. «I'm not happy that I have not been able to resolve this current situation with ASO.
Talk of ASO brings a flush to McQuaid's cheeks, and the glint in his blue eyes gets steely.
When he speaks about ASO owner Patrice Clerc, the anger blunts his lyrical Dublin accent.
Clerc had made it clear he wants ASO's races to function independently of the UCI's ProTour.
«(Clerc) said to me: 'Pat, you go run your ProTour in Kuwait, China, whatever. We don't want a part of it,»' McQuaid said Clerc told him in March 2007.
The Paris-Nice, which ends on Sunday, is being held under ASO's rules and with the backing of the French government.
McQuaid's vision of cycling may once have been romantic races along Dublin's packed streets, but it's now somewhat darker.
He feels cycling itself is under threat.
«We can't allow it to get in the hands of ASO,» he said. «Between the teams, the UCI, we have to work together to build and develop a sport of cycling which is totally global.
Australia's Tour Down Under incorporated the ProTour for the first time this year, and McQuaid wants to expand in Russia, China and the United States.
«The core will always be in Europe,» McQuaid said. «But it needs to have tentacles around the rest of the world because the sponsors have a demand to be in those markets.
Markets and sponsors are in rare supply since last year's doping-marred Tour de France scared many away.
Race favorite Alexandre Vinokourov tested positive for a blood transfusion and Rasmussen was fired while he was leading the Tour by his Rabobank team for lying about his whereabouts after missing prerace doping tests.
Rasmussen's ouster roiled an already troubled sport and Clerc asked for McQuaid's resignation for allowing the Dane to race.
«If we're asked to do the same thing, we'd take the same decision,» McQuaid said. «He hadn't broken any rules.
But critics lambasted McQuaid for not applying one of his organization's own rules: Article 220 of the UCI's anti-doping rules states a rider can be kicked out for «a missed test in a period of 45 days before the start of a major Tour.
That was Rasmussen's case.
Yet, McQuaid said another out-of-competition test Rasmussen took _ which was negative _ «weighed in his favor.
Rasmussen had UCI blood tests on June 30, July 5 and July 17 and was declared clean each time. He also gave four urine samples on July 15, 17, 18 and 19 _ all negative.
But there were other factors involved in Rasmussen's inclusion.
McQuaid spoke with Rasmussen's Rabobank team and found them wary of a legal backlash if they ousted Rasmussen.
«If we stop him, knowing him he will have lawyers on our backs tomorrow and he'll go to CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport),» McQuaid said Rabobank told him before the Tour.
«(The UCI) did an assessment here,» McQuaid said. «Would he win? The assessment was that he would win.
McQuaid's stance on doping cases divides opinion.
During last year's worlds in Stuttgart, Germany, McQuaid squabbled openly with Stuttgart's Minister of Sports, Susanne Eisenmann. She wanted to ban Paolo Bettini from starting because he refused to sign the UCI's own anti-doping pledge.
«Ms. Eisenmann is very much using the problems of doping _ which is a very, very complex problem in the sport _ to advance her own personal political strategy,» McQuaid said at the time.
McQuaid backed Bettini. Six months later, though, riders appear less willing to side with McQuaid.
His letter to teams competing in Paris-Nice, asking them to boycott it and threatening sanctions, was ill received.
«It's pure folly when you receive threats in your job,» veteran French cyclist Christophe Moreau said. A March 10 article in sports daily L'Equipe _ owned by ASO _ quoted an anonymous French rider saying «(McQuaid) should be fired.
Before his election, McQuaid fell out with Sylvia Schenk _ a member of the UCI's management committee _ who believed McQuaid was living off an expense account sanctioned by Verbruggen.
Once elected, McQuaid moved straight to Vevey, a short drive downhill to the Aigle office.
He liked the house, and learned a nuclear bunker had been built there 30 years earlier, with the two beds still unused.
With all he's dealing with, does McQuaid ever feel like hiding down there
Not yet.
McQuaid opens the front door and walks for miles (kilometers) with his wife and two dogs, deep into the hills looming over his home.
«Far away from ASO and from cycling,» he said.
http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:LaYZkwYHmZAJ:www.pr-inside.com/feud-filled-tenure-as-uci-chief-has-r485152.htm+pr-inside+kuwait+uci&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2
AIGLE, Switzerland (AP) - Cycling chief Pat McQuaid has a nuclear bunker in his Swiss home. Given the conflict gripping his sport, some in his position would be tempted to hide there.
But McQuaid, a former Ireland cycling champion, does not shy from the controversies that have marked his tenure.
«Some good decisions, some bad decisions. But
at the end of the day, I make them,» McQuaid told The Associated Press in a recent interview from his UCI office in Aigle.
When McQuaid took over from Hein Verbruggen as president of the International Cycling Union in September 2005, the sport was just coming out of a period of total dominance created by Lance Armstrong and his seven straight Tour de France wins.
In the nearly three years since Armstrong has retired, cycling has been embroiled in an escalating series of feuds and doping scandals. McQuaid has been dragged into a bitter dispute with the Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), the group that organizes the Tour de France and the Paris-Nice race.
The ASO accused him of poor stewardship in the Michael Rasmussen affair during last year's Tour and this year has sparked a feud by holding Paris-Nice outside the UCI's rules.
The image of the sport _ already rocked by doping scandals _ has taken a major blow and sponsors are backing away. Team CSC announced on Thursday it would not renew its sponsorship deal beyond this season.
McQuaid joined the UCI's management committee in 1997 and six years later was nominated to take over from Verbruggen.
At the UCI Congress in Madrid on Sept. 23, 2005, 42 voting delegates gave him a 31-11 majority over challengers Darshan Singh and Gregorio Moreno.
McQuaid heads a 14-man committee that meets each January, June and September. For legal decisions, he depends on a team of five lawyers.
«In my 2œ years on the board, there has never been a vote, everybody's agreed by consensus,» McQuaid said. «When it gets down to legal decisions it's the lawyers here that would advise me.
He sums up his role as being the «executive who presides over the running of day-to-day business.
But to some observers it is still Verbruggen _ president from 1991-2005 _ who does that.
«I am accused that (Verbruggen) is behind me pulling the strings, and that is not the case,» McQuaid said.
He credits Verbruggen with rescuing cycling by implementing contracts, minimum salaries and pensions.
«I know how the structure of cycling was. The amount of black money in the sport,» McQuaid said. «With so much under the counter and so much on your contract ... the rest you got in a brown envelope. That was rampant in the '80s.
As McQuaid speaks, dozens of riders train on the UCI's indoor velodrome, whizzing past on the steeped-banked oval track directly below his window.
McQuaid recently had a go _ and remembers «sweat pouring off» as he tried to stay upright on the curved banks.
In his cycling prime, McQuaid could have conquered them in his sleep.
McQuaid's father, Jim McQuaid, was a leading Irish international cyclist, and his six brothers all raced.
They lived in Glasnevin, close to where Dublin City University is based. A huge cemetery now jostles for space with housing estates, national botanic gardens, parks and Dublin pubs.
One of McQuaid's two photographs in his office is of his father helping a 6-year-old Pat ride a brand new bike imported from Italy. The other is of McQuaid's grown children, three sons and daughter.
He never attained the heights reached by his fellow Irishmen: Stephen Roche won the Tour in 1987 and Sean Kelly ranked No. 1 in the world. McQuaid won the Tour of Ireland in 1975 and 1976.
As a successful road-race promoter, he drew big names to the Kellogg's City Center race in Dublin, and coached Ireland's cyclists at the 1984 Olympics before presiding over the Irish Cycling Federation until 1998.
That was his springboard into the UCI, where he hopes to be elected for another four-year term next year.
Does he think he's done a good job
«I'm happy with the job I'm doing, because I see the sport developing around the world and that is a major objective of mine,» he said. «I'm not happy that I have not been able to resolve this current situation with ASO.
Talk of ASO brings a flush to McQuaid's cheeks, and the glint in his blue eyes gets steely.
When he speaks about ASO owner Patrice Clerc, the anger blunts his lyrical Dublin accent.
Clerc had made it clear he wants ASO's races to function independently of the UCI's ProTour.
«(Clerc) said to me: 'Pat, you go run your ProTour in Kuwait, China, whatever. We don't want a part of it,»' McQuaid said Clerc told him in March 2007.
The Paris-Nice, which ends on Sunday, is being held under ASO's rules and with the backing of the French government.
McQuaid's vision of cycling may once have been romantic races along Dublin's packed streets, but it's now somewhat darker.
He feels cycling itself is under threat.
«We can't allow it to get in the hands of ASO,» he said. «Between the teams, the UCI, we have to work together to build and develop a sport of cycling which is totally global.
Australia's Tour Down Under incorporated the ProTour for the first time this year, and McQuaid wants to expand in Russia, China and the United States.
«The core will always be in Europe,» McQuaid said. «But it needs to have tentacles around the rest of the world because the sponsors have a demand to be in those markets.
Markets and sponsors are in rare supply since last year's doping-marred Tour de France scared many away.
Race favorite Alexandre Vinokourov tested positive for a blood transfusion and Rasmussen was fired while he was leading the Tour by his Rabobank team for lying about his whereabouts after missing prerace doping tests.
Rasmussen's ouster roiled an already troubled sport and Clerc asked for McQuaid's resignation for allowing the Dane to race.
«If we're asked to do the same thing, we'd take the same decision,» McQuaid said. «He hadn't broken any rules.
But critics lambasted McQuaid for not applying one of his organization's own rules: Article 220 of the UCI's anti-doping rules states a rider can be kicked out for «a missed test in a period of 45 days before the start of a major Tour.
That was Rasmussen's case.
Yet, McQuaid said another out-of-competition test Rasmussen took _ which was negative _ «weighed in his favor.
Rasmussen had UCI blood tests on June 30, July 5 and July 17 and was declared clean each time. He also gave four urine samples on July 15, 17, 18 and 19 _ all negative.
But there were other factors involved in Rasmussen's inclusion.
McQuaid spoke with Rasmussen's Rabobank team and found them wary of a legal backlash if they ousted Rasmussen.
«If we stop him, knowing him he will have lawyers on our backs tomorrow and he'll go to CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport),» McQuaid said Rabobank told him before the Tour.
«(The UCI) did an assessment here,» McQuaid said. «Would he win? The assessment was that he would win.
McQuaid's stance on doping cases divides opinion.
During last year's worlds in Stuttgart, Germany, McQuaid squabbled openly with Stuttgart's Minister of Sports, Susanne Eisenmann. She wanted to ban Paolo Bettini from starting because he refused to sign the UCI's own anti-doping pledge.
«Ms. Eisenmann is very much using the problems of doping _ which is a very, very complex problem in the sport _ to advance her own personal political strategy,» McQuaid said at the time.
McQuaid backed Bettini. Six months later, though, riders appear less willing to side with McQuaid.
His letter to teams competing in Paris-Nice, asking them to boycott it and threatening sanctions, was ill received.
«It's pure folly when you receive threats in your job,» veteran French cyclist Christophe Moreau said. A March 10 article in sports daily L'Equipe _ owned by ASO _ quoted an anonymous French rider saying «(McQuaid) should be fired.
Before his election, McQuaid fell out with Sylvia Schenk _ a member of the UCI's management committee _ who believed McQuaid was living off an expense account sanctioned by Verbruggen.
Once elected, McQuaid moved straight to Vevey, a short drive downhill to the Aigle office.
He liked the house, and learned a nuclear bunker had been built there 30 years earlier, with the two beds still unused.
With all he's dealing with, does McQuaid ever feel like hiding down there
Not yet.
McQuaid opens the front door and walks for miles (kilometers) with his wife and two dogs, deep into the hills looming over his home.
«Far away from ASO and from cycling,» he said.
