Pat McQuaid denies reports that UCI will get involved in Alberto Contador decision

Pat McQuaid, president of world cycling’s governing body, the UCI, has refuted reports that the Spanish national federation, the RFEC, had enlisted the help of the UCI and the World-Andi Doping Agency to reach a decision in the Alberto Contador case, and insisted that the RFEC must reach a conclusion on its own.

Speaking in Antwerp, where he was attending the Belgian national cyclo-cross championships, McQuaid stated that contrary to a suggestio in Spanish newspaper El País which claimed that the RFEC had sent documentation to the UCI, reported here on road.cc yesterday, nothing had been received at the organsiation’s offices in Aigle.

Among the reasons given by an anonymous RFEC source for the UCI and WADA becoming involved in the process were that it would speed up matters and also mean that having been part of the decision-making process, there would no delay as might happen if the RFEC made the decision on its own and either of the other parties felt the need to appeal the decision.

However, McQuaid said that in most instances, the majority of national governing bodies were able to resolve doping cases satisfactorily, meaning that the UCI did not often need to seek recourse at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

That may e an oblique reference to the fact that it was only the UCI and WADA taking Alejandro Valverde’s case to the CAS that led to the Spanish cyclist being banned last May for two years, with the RFEC having never opened proceedings against him for his links to Operaion Puerto.