Greg Lemond Slams The UCI President
Greg Lemond, the three time winner of the Tour de France, has written an open letter to Pat McQuaid on his facebook page and he hasn’t exactly held back…
You might already know, but basically things have been kicking off with the UCI of late, well in particular regarding the President Pat McQuaid and Hein Verbruggen who’s the honourary president. There have been mumblings for ages about whether or not the two are corrupt, but ever since the pair decided to try and sue the journalist Paul Kimmage for openly calling them corrupt the whole thing has gone crazy. A Paul Kimmage Defence Fund was set up and already over $76000 has been donated by both key players in the industry and your average Joe Blogs who simply cares about the future of cycling. Then the whole Lance thing kicked off, and basically I think a huge number of people are pissed off by the thought (and I’ll chose my words carefully here to try and avoid any legal problems) that some serious big wigs in the sport were, and always have been, fully aware of what was going on…at the very least. Now though the cycling legend that is Greg Lemond has spoken out, and that’s putting it lightly! It’s a call to arms if ever I’ve heard one.
So, what do you lot reckon to this? Should we really try and bring down the UCI if they won’t leave? We’ve definitely had our fair share of grumblings about the UCI, and if we are ever going to get rid of them then surely this is our best ever chance. Oh, and if you’re sat there thinking that this doesn’t really effect us because it’s mainly about road cycling then you’re wrong. Whatever the outcome is of all this current mess regarding cycling it will almost certainly have an effect on our sport.
Anyway, here is that letter…
OPEN LETTER FROM GREG LEMOND
Can anyone help me out? I know this sounds kind of lame but I am not well versed in social marketing. I would like to send a message to everyone that really loves cycling. I do not use twitter and do not have an organized way of getting some of my own “rage” out. I want to tell the world of cycling to please join me in telling Pat McQuaid to f##k off and resign. I have never seen such an abuse of power in cycling’s history- resign Pat if you love cycling. Resign even if you hate the sport.
Pat McQuaid, you know damn well what has been going on in cycling, and if you want to deny it, then even more reasons why those who love cycling need to demand that you resign.
I have a file with what I believe is well documented proof that will exonerate Paul.
Pat in my opinion you and Hein are the corrupt part of the sport. I do not want to include everyone at the UCI because I believe that there are many, maybe most that work at the UCI that are dedicated to cycling, they do it out of the love of the sport, but you and your buddy Hein have destroyed the sport.
Pat, I thought you loved cycling? At one time you did and if you did love cycling please dig deep inside and remember that part of your life- allow cycling to grow and flourish- please! It is time to walk away. Walk away if you love cycling.
As a reminder I just want to point out that recently you accused me of being the cause of USADA’s investigation against Lance Armstrong. Why would you be inclined to go straight to me as the “cause”? Why shoot the messenger every time?
Every time you do this I get more and more entrenched. I was in your country over the last two weeks and I asked someone that knows you if you were someone that could be rehabilitated. His answer was very quick and it was not good for you. No was the answer, no, no , no!
The problem for sport is not drugs but corruption. You are the epitome of the word corruption.
You can read all about Webster’s definition of corruption. If you want I can re-post my attorney’s response to your letter where you threaten to sue me for calling the UCI corrupt. FYI I want to officially reiterate to you and Hein that in my opinion the two of your represent the essence of corruption.
I would encourage anyone that loves cycling to donate and support Paul in his fight against the Pat and Hein and the UCI. Skip lunch and donate the amount that you would have spent towards that Sunday buffet towards changing the sport of cycling.
I donated money for Paul’s defense, and I am willing to donate a lot more, but I would like to use it to lobby for dramatic change in cycling. The sport does not need Pat McQuaid or Hein Verbruggen- if this sport is going to change it is now. Not next year, not down the road, now! Now or never!
People that really care about cycling have the power to change cycling- change it now by voicing your thought and donating money towards Paul Kimmage’s defense, (Paul, I want to encourage you to not spend the money that has been donated to your defense fund on defending yourself in Switzerland. In my case, a USA citizen, I could care less if I lost the UCI’s bogus lawsuit. Use the money to lobby for real change).
If people really want to clean the sport of cycling up all you have to do is put your money where your mouth is.
Don’t buy a USA Cycling license. Give up racing for a year, just long enough to put the UCI and USA cycling out of business. We can then start from scratch and let the real lovers in cycling direct where and how the sport of cycling will go.
With Greg, Pat McQuaid and Heinz Ketchup were sat there through the worst years of it, they benefitted from it. They strongly deny that anyone ever gave them money to look the other way… yeah, we believe you.
.
I’m waiting for Lemond to sue Trek (and Armstrong himself) for a couple hundred million. Given the hatchet job they did on him, then his brand, when he questioned Armstrong’s ethics a decade ago. Trek openly admitted they thought the Lemond brand should have been worth $35million-ish a year, but they were dropping it because of his opinion of Lance. Couple that with the various legal threats and efforts they made against him since, he’s got to have a strong case there.
the UCI will be receiving my CV shortly…
RT @DirtMagazine: I suspect that Greg Lemond won’t be getting a Christmas card from the UCI this year… http://t.co/geL4tCZG
Back when I was a teenage roadie, and it’s been a while, Greg Lemond was my hero. Here in the states we’ve already started to move away from USA Cycling in the forms of the USGP, the Western States Cup etc. The last “National that I went to in Northstar had fewer attendees than one of it’s competitors. It’s not really that hard. There’s no room in this world for corruption in any organization be it the UCI or the local PTA. Already in Europe, the IXS Cup is attracting the big names. Why not go a step further and not buy UCI licenses and switch over en mass to the IXS? All the extra income for them would allow them to expand and totally out class the UCI. Perhaps instead of the IXS European Cup, it could become the IXS World Cup. Bring it to America, Asia, South America. I don’t think that the UCI has a copyright on the term “World Cup”. I’m sure that they’d try to sue, but they’d loose in any court.
UCI proved it was a joke with that whole Rocky Roads fiasco last year. Time for DH at least, to go its own way DH1 was, and is the future
Why did RockyRoads giving money to sponsor the WorldCup series make the UCI a joke?
Cycling doesn’t need the UCI. You only need to look at freestyle BMX to see how a sport can flourish without those dictators involved.
I agree I have not been a fan of they way the UCI has been acting.
The only reason i can see that the UCI are still involved is down to the World Champs and Rainbow stripes. They are such a big deal in the cycling world its hard for companies and riders to ignore it due to sponsorship requirements, etc. Basically the collective mindset has to be that the UCI World Champs is “worthless” and it needs to be replaced by another World Champs with a higher value, both monetary and reputation wise. The IXS idea is great as is DH1 so these need to be supported and hopefully we can lose the UCI altogether.
Why is the iXS idea great? (I’m not going to mention the debacle/utter joke that was DH1 a series with no sponsors or TV), the iXS series is sanctioned by the UCI and is now the official UCI European series. From a professional standpoint I have race both World Cups and iXS races and I know for a fact any elite level racer would rather race a World Cup. At an iXS Euro Cup you have good organisation but 400+ riders, average tracks and no true elite category, you get limited practice time, blocked courses and a huge danger from such a mix of abilities racing on the same course. So for now anyone’s idea that “the iXS is a great alternative to the World Cups” is utter dog poo. That is a fact, However the iXS guys do have the ability and resources to run a true elite series if they wanted. But now they are in bed with RedBull who have an MTB media coverage deal with the UCI so….well it’s complicated.
Does UCI stand for “Uniquely Corrupt Individuals”? If so they should join bankers and politicians.
IXS and DH1 should take over. By the riders for the riders I say……4x done it this year so I’m sure DH can do it too.
There´s a lot of things that could be done better than the UCI does things now and has done in the past few years, especially with MTB. I just hope the shakeup will be strong enough to reach MTB…
RT @LoekaClothing: And now just in case you have been under a rock the last few days. Things are really heating up with UCI, USA… http://t.co/ze08m5uJ
Greg Lemond Slams The UCI President http://t.co/MEhSnzm4
TL:DR……cliffs anyone?
Oh never mind I think I will just go and ride my bike instead.
is that photo a contender for Viz Magazine’s “up the arse” corner? Sorry, but that’s my reaction to what is a depressing story. I’ll see if I can come up with something a bit more adult later.
It would be interesting to hear some of the “real” reasons behind Chris Ball leaving the UCI.
decaf, greg!
@AlexRoelich Read this Greg Lemond goes ape shit at the UCI http://t.co/rF7YRVKK #uci #cycling #lemond
Greg Lemond Slams The UCI President http://t.co/BVRFrAI3 #cycling