Brian Cookson vowed not to stoop to “mud-slinging” in the race for the International Cycling Union presidency after Pat McQuaid proved he had no such scruples in his attempt to cling to power.
Cookson’s candidacy also appeared to attract the unwelcome backing of the disgraced Lance Armstrong as the flak began to fly in the direction of the British Cycling president within hours of him declaring: “Now is the time to put my head above the parapet.”
The smear campaign against Cookson was already well under way by the time he outlined his vision for cleaning up the UCI on Tuesday afternoon, 72 hours after informing McQuaid of his bid to wrest control of the sport from the Irishman at September’s presidential elections.
Cookson admitted the 63-year-old was “not particularly happy” about him standing, and he was given a taste of precisely how upset his opponent was when McQuaid sent an email to the presidents of other federations accusing him of breaking his word not to challenge for the presidency, of being a “pawn” in an attempted coup, and questioning his links to a man previously found guilty of breaching the UCI code of ethics.
McQuaid’s email, sent on Monday, was leaked on Tuesday after Cookson had already vowed not to be drawn into a street fight with his rival, insisting the Irishman’s “confrontational” approach to leadership was the polar opposite of his own “peacemaker” style.
Even Cookson might baulk at offering an olive branch to Armstrong, despite the American re-tweeting a Twitter message urging cycling fans around the world to get behind the challenger.
Cookson could do without the endorsement of a man guilty of arguably the biggest doping scandal in history, even if Armstrong is ultimately responsible for the Briton standing in the first place.
The 61-year-old revealed on Tuesday that he had run out of patience with McQuaid in the wake of the Armstrong scandal, admitting his own pledges of support as recently as February had been made purely out of a dedication to the concept of “collective responsibility”.
The man credited with helping transform British cycling in his 16 years as president added: “I thought it was important to try to establish stability for the next few months and to give Pat my support in the hope that things would change and improve. But they haven’t changed and improved enough.
“Now is the time to put my head above the parapet, and so many people have asked me around the world and in Great Britain to do so.”
Cookson promised a “fully independent investigation” into allegations of corruption at the UCI and vowed to establish a “completely independent body to deal with anti-doping in cycling”, from detection to sanction.
McQuaid has repeatedly denied knowledge of any UCI attempt to cover up the Armstrong or other doping scandals but his attitude towards holding an inquiry into the matter sparked a war of words with the World Anti-Doping Agency.
The UCI disbanded an independent commission into its anti-doping policies in January, and despite calling for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, one has yet to be established.
Cookson vowed to repair the UCI’s relationship with Wada and regain the trust of both the public and sponsors.
“I want to be able to say to parents: ‘You can bring your children into this sport, you can take them all the way to the top of the sport, and they won’t have to make decisions that mean they’re going to have to cheat, are going to have to take substances that might damage their health and so on’,” he said.
“What I find frustrating at the moment is that for the sport and pastime of cycling, this is very much an activity whose time has come.
“And, yet, there is still this underlying sense that this is a sport that is disfigured by doping and we’ve got to do more about it.”