Lissavetzky defends Spain's doping stance

By Antonio J. Salmerón

The President of the Spanish Sport Superior Council Jaime Lissavetzky has hit back at UCI president Pat McQuaid's accusations that Spain is the biggest source of the sport's doping problems, saying that he has a neutral approach to all doping cases brought forward. Lissavetzky's comments come after McQuaid slammed the nation for having a "reluctance to completely clean the problem out".

"I am not going to enter answering to the president of the UCI," said Lissavetzky. "Everything that designed to put pressure on a sport court, whom has to act independently, is not positive. I am not a person that likes to generate pressure and therefore I will keep my opinion until the opportune moment."

Lissavetzky's words to EFE follow comments in an AP interview with McQuaid, in which the Irishman hit out at Spain's selection of Alejandro Valverde, who reached the bronze medal in Salzburg, Austria last year, despite the governing body stating it didn't want Valverde to contest the event. "The biggest problem we have in doping and cycling comes from Spain," McQuaid said in the interview. "There seems to be a reluctance to completely clean the problem out in Spain."

Lissaetzky defended the Spanish government's stance against doping and its ongoing commitment to unearthing doping rights. "The government of Spain continues fighting against doping, and not only through the laws that they have approved, but also as important operations such as the Mammoth, Gamma or the Operacion Puerto."