Aldag blasts UCI, McQuaid and pro cycling

Rolf Aldag chats at the start. (Image credit: Gregor Brown/Cyclingnews.com)

Rolf Aldag no longer wants to be deeply involved in cycling, saying that he has “no interest in working in a scenario that I don't like and where nothing changes." He also criticised the UCI and its president Pat McQuaid, particularly as to their stand on doping.

Most recently he felt himself “trapped” in a “special environment” in which the UCI makes its decisions considering nothing but its own interest “without a hint of democracy,” he told the Süddeutsche Zeitung. According to Aldag, the UCI follows its own economic interest without seriously tackling doping problems. “In every area, things are stretched out until it is to their advantage. Regardless of whether it is ethically responsible,” he said.

Aldag called UCI president Pat McQuaid “extremely unbelievable.” McQuaid should not have told journalists that the UCI had never received financial donations from athletes, “and then a few days later say, oh it was just 100,000 dollars one time, and then another 25,000. One must actually say: McQuaid did not tell the truth – and he in that position (as UCI President, ed.). Therefore he should go.”

Aldag also spoke out against Hans-Michael Holczer, the former Gerolsteiner team boss who is now at Team Katusha. “If he has such high moral requirements, then you must say that he failed massively in their everyday implementation in the past. He always said that he was clean and wanted his riders to ride clean – and then you go around blindly and have three huge doping cases with Stefan Schumacher, Bernhard Kohl and Davide Rebellin on your team? And then to say you have nothing to do with it - that doesn't work, of course.”