McQuaid proposes rule to ban drug cheats from team management

UCI President Pat McQuaid will put forward a proposal to the UCI Management Committee to ban future drug cheats from returning to the sport as part of cycling team management.

There are currently limited rules that dictate that a rider who tests positive can not immediately return to the sport as team manager or directeur sportif.

"I'll be putting forward a new regulation in June that, once it's in place, any rider caught in a doping sanction will not be able to come back into the sport in a management position," McQuaid told Cyclingnews, although he was quick to also point out that, "We the UCI are still examining all aspects of the rule and won't finalise it until June."

In June, the UCI's Management Committee will convene over several other aspects affecting the sport; however, the issue over unilateral bans across all levels of the sport could be a contentious one with European Union employment laws a possible stumbling block.

"The sport has got to face up to this problem of doping and this continuous circle. This is the only way we can do it," said McQuaid. "We'll bring in the regulation but if someone wants to bring us to the European court then let them do it."

One point McQuaid stressed surrounded retrospective analysis, saying that past doping offences before the new rule comes into place would not be punished. Cycling has numerous team bosses and DSs whom either tested positive - in some cases several times - or who later confessed to doping.

"You can't make it retrospective. Everyone must know what the playing pitch is like before they go onto it, and you can't do it in another way. However, once that rule comes into place and all riders are informed of it, they will know what the consequences would be should they get involved in a doping infraction and try to come back in another way."

"You can only bring in the rule for the future so it will only apply to people that get involved in doping after the rules comes in - so the riders know and they're informed."

"All we're trying to do is break the cycle so that the doping influence is less involved in the sport and that the managers are a group who have the highest ethics as cyclists and continue to have the highest ethics as management. I'm bringing in the rule for the future.