As discussed by UCI president Pat McQuaid in the past 48 hours, the UCI has begun to discuss how to deal with the “black era” of cycling that occurred during the “Doped-up Lance Armstrong Reign” of professional road cycling.
McQuaid ponders who will be part of his “Selective Amnesty” Program. (photo courtesy Velonews)
“We are appreciative of all these organisations offering their support to allow those who were involved in illegal performance enhancing procedures to clear their conscience in order for us to return to business as usual, but this is our problem, and we’ll deal with it internally, as we’ve always done,” stated McQuaid in an exclusive phone interview with cyclismas.com
However, it seems that the UCI will be picking and choosing who receives the amnesty.
“Look, it’s ultimately my job to determine what goes on around here. I make the decisions. I tell everyone who our superstar is going to be. I tell everyone who I want to win the Tour de France. I tell the ASO how to set up the course for those we pick to win. Ultimately it’s me who tells them where to send the money, how much, and when,” stated a candid McQuaid.
To this end, and fitting with standard McQuaid/UCI operational guidelines in place since 1992, McQuaid is introducing a selective amnesty program for 2013.
“We’re discussing this at the management committee meeting this month. Well, let’s just call a spade a spade. I’m telling those arseholes what we’re going to do, like we’ve been doing forever. And the point? We want to make sure that the ‘right’ stories are told, in the right way, to the right people. We don’t want someone like Andreas Klier going rogue, telling stories out of turn. What would happen if Thor Hushovd and Philippe Gilbert started telling their stories? It would be chaos,” stated McQuaid.
McQuaid will be offering “full amnesty” to those he chooses to tell the doping stories the UCI wants publicized. However, those who decide to talk without prior UCI approval will be punished “to the full extent of the WADA and UCI code.”
On the topic of managers and team owners, McQuaid confirmed his opinion on their revelations.
“We’ll punish them the same as current riders who want to spill their guts,” declared McQuaid.
As far as retired riders, McQuaid was murky.
“Let’s hope we only have to deal with riders still involved in the sport, so we have leverage. Heaven forbid someone who has completely walked away from the sport starts talking. We’d have to discredit them in the press, just like we’ve done in the past,” continued McQuaid, “Let’s just hope these boys don’t decide to grow a pair now, otherwise, all of us in Aigle are in deep shite.”
Details of the “Selective Amnesty” program will be revealed a week prior to annual World Tour license review.
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