A bid farewell

In a letter published to Tuttobici former UCI president Hein Verbruggen bids farewell; to the sport and organization he governed for more than a decade:

“I wrote to our president Pat McQuaid on June 1 last year to inform him of my decision to distance myself from the world of sports, including cycling. After 38 years of dedication to the sport, now I want to enjoy retirement. The president took note and decided to respect my decision. First, I want to make it clear that I have never acted inappropriately and that my conscience is absolutely clean. With the benefit of hindsight, however, I admit that I could have done some things differently, but I do not accept that my integrity is in doubt, as has happened in recent months.”

Amongst the number of achievements during his incumbency Verbruggen emphasized how he reduced UCI’s debt of 1.5 million Swiss francs, the growth from five staff members to seventy-five, and the establishment of the World Cycling Centre in Aigle, Switzerland.

While melancholic at first, Verbruggen’s statement turned intransigent when it came to his leadership through the doping-era, the relationship with Armstrong, and his dealings with the media:

“I repeat: I have never acted inappropriately and I have a clear conscience. No facts, no evidence contradicts this truth. I refuse to engage in a silly debate and stoop to the level of those who criticize me and believe that I have to prove my innocence: in fact they are the ones who cannot prove that I have done something wrong,” he wrote. “I am exasperated and tired of this endless chain of journalists who delight to fuel conspiracy theories, disguising themselves as ‘investigative journalists’ to sell their latest book or inflate their egos or their careers.”

From another point of view

Hein Verbruggen is of course affected by his retirement from the UCI, and good many years given to the service of professional cycling; even his relation to the media may also be understandable.

Nonetheless, not everybody agrees that he is as unimpeachable as he would like to appear.

Remember this youtube link, where he reacts in a rather unique way to Garmin manager Jonathan Vaughters’ rightful boycut of the Chinese races?

Even if you do not, Jonathan Vaughter recently provided Cycling News with some quite interesting information pertaining to Hein Verbruggen’s kind of empire, and here is a snip:

“During the annual AIGCP reunion, the teams had decided that since they had not been included in the decision making process regarding radios that we would not attend the UCI’s race, the Tour of Beijing. We felt we had every right to not participate, as, after all, the investment dollars to start up the Tour of Beijing came from funding the teams themselves had given the UCI in 2004. No one ever gave the UCI permission to use this funding to start the Tour of Beijing, but, using unilateral decision making, Pat once again did as his predecessor, Hein, wished and gave away our money to be used to create an event that the teams had no desire to participate in.

So, with this as the background, we decided, in a unanimous vote, that we would not be racing in Beijing until we were given an appropriate voice in the governance of the sport. The radio issue was where we chose to make our stand. Within hours of informing Alain Rumpf of this mandate, I received a voicemail from Verbruggen which would prove emblematic of the way UCI ruled: through intimidation and bullying: (appendix 2). I was clearly no longer the protégé Hein wanted, certainly not at the cost of his clear interest in the Tour of Beijing. More disturbingly, this message made it clear – Pat McQuaid did not run the UCI, Hein wore the pants.”

Then there is Verbruggen’s own statement from 2011 that:

“Lance Armstrong has never used doping. Never, never, never!”

His 2013 admittance to Dutch Vrik Nederland that the UCI tipped off rider about suspicious anti-doping test results:

"Riders who were doping [but who had yet to fail a test] were effectively warned that they were being watched and that they would be targeted in future with the aim of getting them to stop doping.

And finally, the 2013 accusations that Verbruggen and McQuaid had attempted to conceal Contador’s positive Clenbuterol test during the 2010. An excerpt of the document read:

"There is testimonial evidence that after the rider Alberto Contador failed a doping test in 2010, UCI tried to engage in a cover-up of the failed test in exchange for money, The witness who provided this testimony advised the efforts were not successful because the media became aware of the story before the cover-up could be completed. The witness claims there are other witnesses who can provide corroborative testimony."

Make of it what you want, but the end of Verbruggen’s reign might just make the world of cycling a better place.