An independent commission set up by the International Cycling Union following the Lance Armstrong scandal was suspended yesterday after it emerged it had yet to receive a document from the sport's global governing body.
“We have yet to receive any documents from the UCI,” an initial procedural hearing in London was told by Guy Morpuss, lawyer to the commission. Later, inquiry chairman Philip Otton, a former judge in England's Court of Appeal, said he was, “with considerable reluctance” suspending the hearing until January 31.
Fallen hero: Lance Armstrong
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Afterwards, embattled UCI president Pat McQuaid told reporters: “A truth and reconciliation hearing is the best way we can examine the process. Our procedures are the most innovative and stringent in sport, we were the first (sports) federation to introduce a biological passport in 2008 and we want to eradicate doping in cycling.”
McQuaid, who said he had resigned on Thursday from an International Olympic Committee body evaluating cities for the 2020 Games because “my sport needs me”, added: “We want a truth and reconciliation commission with WADA (the World Anti-Doping Agency). We cannot do it without them,” McQuaid, UCI chief since 2005, said.
“The foundation board of WADA have to change the WADA code to give an amnesty. Their next meeting is in May —they can change that regulation straight away.”
Asked how long the whole process might take, the Irishman replied: “It’s very difficult to know the timescale... But I don’t want a cloud hanging over the sport for the next year or two years.”
Earlier, after the UCI revealed it had 16 files of documents, an angry Tanni Grey-Thompson, Britain’s former Paralympic champion who is one of the three members of the commission, asked: “When we will get the files?”u00a0
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