McQuaid: "If I get re-elected I know I can reunify cycling fairly easily"

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Incumbent UCI president Pat McQuaid has continued his campaigning heading into the upcoming UCI presidential elections stating that he can help reunify cycling if re-elected. One of the main points raised by McQuaid's detractors is that of alleged poor handling of doping cases, including but not limited to, the fallout after the Armstrong affair and the follow on from his predecessor in Hein Verbruggen.

Conversely, McQuaid believes the lessons he has learnt from such sagas are exactly what qualify him to help instigate change over the following four years should he be re-elected.

"If I get re-elected I know I can reunify cycling fairly easily," McQuaid told The Telegraph. "Brian says change means change from the past, in other words from McQuaid and Verbruggen and change from all the baggage that McQuaid and Verbruggen have.

"I have learned from that and from any mistakes I've made in relation to that. But I do feel that I need another four years to complete the cultural change of doping."

McQuaid also claimed to have received a boost of support from colleagues at the recent International Olympic Committee (IOC) congress in Buenos Aires, asserting that they knew "what was going on" in the quest to oust him.

"I found it quite heartening; I got a lot of support from my IOC colleagues. A large number of them came up to me and knew what was going on,” explained McQuaid. "Because they're experienced in sports politics they could see what was happening in the background and they could read between the lines in what they read.

"They could see what was going on and they told me that and they wished me the best of luck and told me to keep fighting and to stay with it.

"Every one of them told me that they hoped I would endure and be re-elected."