“What Pat is doing right now is distorting and distracting from the various issues. He knows the truth”
UCI management committee member Mike Plant has explained why he and Igor Makarov have not passed on a dossier listing alleged wrongdoing by Pat McQuaid to the UCI’s Ethics Commission.
According to the American, a lack of confidence in the independence of that commission is the reason why that body has not been given the report in question.
The dossier, which was compiled by two private investigators that were appointed to the task by Makarov, details a list of alleged ethics violations by McQuaid. To date it has neither been made public nor shown to the rest of the UCI management committee, with McQuaid successfully blocking the latter.
However a document summarising the contents of the dossier has been made public and includes allegations of unethical behaviour by McQuaid relating to Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador, unnamed teams, the Vrijman report and other matters.
McQuaid blasted the publication of that document today, referring to it as a “scurrilous and libellous attack,” and claimed that Plant or Makarov were behind its leaking to the press. He said that they were the only two with access to the original dossier, and argued that the summarising document must have come from them.
He suggested that they were seeking to damage his name in order to further the election chances of his rival Brian Cookson.
McQuaid also sought to raise questions about inaction by Makarov and Plant after the dossier was first discussed at a UCI management committee in June.
“The Ethics Commission asked for a copy of the dossier from Igor Makarov and Mike Plant, but both of them refused to hand it over to the Ethics Commission,” he said. “That fact alone speaks volumes.”
Contacted by VeloNation, Plant accepted that it had not been given to the commission, but said they had a valid reason for acting as they did.
“There is no belief that I or another number of people have that the Ethics Commission would operate complete independently of the UCI,” he said. He said that one example of the blurred lines is that a lawyer for the commission also acts as a lawyer for the UCI. “There’s not enough distance between the two,” he stated.
“Pat has spoken today about us not going to the ethics commission. How does Pat know what we did or didn’t do? If it was truly independent of the UCI, he should not have that information. That’s one example of how the two bodies are too close.
“So, there’s little confidence that the ethics commission would be fully independent.”
Asked what would happen next with the dossier, Plant said he wasn’t sure, saying that Makarov is the person who has responsibility for it. However he suggested that more would be heard from it before the election on September 27th. “I think over the next two weeks, some more information to support that will probably have to come out,” he told VeloNation. “That will be unfortunate for the organisation, but the truth needs to get out there.”
Speaking about McQuaid’s reaction, he said that he has known the Irishman for a long time and that when he is under pressure, he comes out swinging. He described as ‘outlandish’ McQuaid’s claims of extortion, mafia, vote buying and other matters.
“My feeling is that what Pat is doing right now is distorting and distracting from the various issues,” he said.
“He knows the truth of the matter. Everyone has a conscience and can act on it or not.”