Kimmage receives UCI subpoena

Paul Kimmage has received a subpoena from the Swiss district court that will hear the defamation proceedings instigated against him by current UCI president Pat McQuaid, his predecessor Hein Verbruggen and the UCI itself.

Kimmage confirmed to Cyclingnews that he received a subpoena on Wednesday from the Est Vaudois district court, which is based in Vevey, near UCI headquarters at Aigle. The case is to be heard on December 12.

McQuaid and Verbruggen launched their action in January of this year, seeking damages of 8,000 Swiss Francs each from Kimmage. They have also demanded that Kimmage take out advertisements in the international media publicising the court’s final order.

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In January, a UCI spokesman told Cyclingnews that the action had been taken because “Mr. McQuaid cannot allow for him or the UCI to be called corrupt.”

It is understood that the UCI’s action was triggered by Kimmage’s body of work for The Sunday Times newspaper, which includes an extensive interview with Floyd Landis published in January 2011, and in response to criticism of the UCI that Kimmage expressed in an interview with L’Équipe. However, the UCI has not requested damages from L’Équipe or The Sunday Times, but only from Kimmage. The Irishman left The Sunday Times at the end of 2011.

The UCI has summoned the following witnesses: Swiss Cycling federation president Richard Chassot; Daniel Malbranque, president of the CPA (Cyclistes Professionels Associes); Alan Rushton, who ran the Nissan Classic with Pat McQuaid in the 1980s and whose work now includes a role in the organisation of the Tour of Beijing; former Liberty Seguros manager Pablo Anton; former Tour de Romandie organiser and UCI disciplinary committee member Claude Jacquat; former Milram manager Gerry Van Gerwen and former UCI director general Jean-Pierre Strebel.

Walsh later noted: “The question is this: why would UCI go after Kimmage and not go after Tyler Hamilton and publishers of The Secret Race?”