By Duncan Mackay

Pat McQuaid in front of Pro Tour signApril 27 - Cycling Ireland has revoked its nomination of Pat McQuaid for President of the International Cycling Union (UCI) because it did not follow its own rules, it has announced. 


Cycling Ireland has now called an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) to allow its members to vote on whether McQuaid should be allowed seek another term as the head of cycling's world governing body.

The unexpected turnabout follows the decision earlier this month by Cycling Ireland's Board to back McQuaid to stand for a third term as President despite him being under severe pressure following the Lance Armstrong scandal.

Vice-president Anthony Moran, the only Board member out of the seven not to have voted for McQuaid, resigned after the meeting.

He has now successfully challenged the outcome, claiming it was not carried out within the legal framework and guidelines of Cycling Ireland.

Cycling Ireland's own legal team have declared the result null and void because President Rory Wyley did not follow the correct procedures.

"I'm very happy that they've [Cycling Ireland] made a very hard decision to hand it back over to the grass roots," Moran told VeloNews. 

"You have to take your hat off to them for having the courage to do it.

"I read the whole USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency) report before the Board meeting with Pat.

"I went back through all the correspondence between William Bock, the USADA attorney, and the UCI.

"It's just constant drugs, drugs, drugs.

"I lost confidence in the UCI and consequently I lost confidence in Pat as leader.

"From a governance perspective, somebody has to take the rap for it.

"Unfortunately, it's an Irishman at the top but there have been too many drugs scandals, too many things going on, too many mistakes made.

"Somebody has to take the blame."

Lance Armstrong with Pat McQuaidPat McQuaid (left) has been under pressure as head of the UCI since USADA banned Lance Armstrong for life last August after they found him guilty of using banned drugs

The news is potentially a devastating blow to McQuaid, whose nomation will now effectively be in the hands of the Irish cycling public, who will probably be less sympathetic than the administrators.

"I was honoured that the board of Cycling Ireland endorsed my nomination as a candidate for the Presidency of the UCI earlier this month," McQuaid said in a statement.

"I understand that Cycling Ireland has now decided to refer the matter to an EGM as a result of a technicality arising from the fact that its President temporarily vacated the chair of the nomination meeting so that he could contribute to the meeting under the chair of the CEO.

"This decision was taken on the basis of legal advice on procedural rules not on the merits of my nomination which the Board has endorsed."

Moran claimed that if McQuaid gets get the nomination at the EGM - on a date still to be announced - then he will back it.

"If Pat goes through the process and Pat gets elected, then happy days," he told VeloNews.

"That's democracy and I've no problem with that.

"I just think that after USADA, if cycling had just one candidate standing in a global election then it's an indictment on all of the cycling nations.

"I think this will make a difference and I feel that you will see a couple of really strong candidates coming forward now."

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