The UCI has become embroiled in a row over the denial of a UCI Road World Championships accreditation to a journalist who has previously written articles critical of cycling’s governing body.
Iain Treloar, who writes for the Cyclingtips website, had his application to cover the UCI Road World Championships in Australia turned down twice.
The UCI have claimed that the reason that Treloar was not allowed accreditation was because no publication was permitted more than three media representatives at the Championships, for space reasons, and Cyclingtips had already reached their quota of accredited journalists. In a World Championships press conference on Saturday, UCI President David Lappartient repeated this argument.
Treloar has investigated various thorny issues involving the UCI, including its relationship with controversial Russian billionaire Igor Makarov, sanctioned by Australia and Canada in relation to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In an article published by UK newspaper, The Guardian, Treloar said he believed his denial of his accreditation could have something to do with his investigative reporting.
“It’s possibly just an accumulation of a number of stories building a perception in their minds that I’m a troublemaker, or whatever,” he said. “But I think I’m asking reasonable questions about sports governance.”
According to The Guardian, the UCI did not respond to questions on “whether Treloar’s past reporting influenced its decision.” It's also been reported elsewhere in Australian media that the press centre in the World Championships has been "relatively empty" this week.
The cycling journalists association, the AIJC, said that they had sent the UCI two emails to “express our displeasure with this situation” and “urging the UCI to still give Iain Treloar an accreditation for the World Championships.”
A statement released to Cyclingnews by the AIJC on Sunday said, “The UCI claims that only three accreditations are given per medium. We stressed to them that the UCI has double standards regarding this rule, because last year several Belgian media had more than three journalists accredited in [the World Championships] in Leuven.
“The UCI didn't even answer our emails anymore and also our representative during the WC didn't get any further in the discussion with the UCI. We will now raise this incident with other bodies, including the AIPS [association covering all professional sports journalism]."
