Video: McQuaid praises absence of race radio at the Tour of Britain

UCI President Pat McQuaid was in London to see the final stage of the Tour of Britain and praised the quality of the racing, suggesting that it was partially due to riders not using race radio.

“You can’t judge things on one race but I’ve had a chat with several team managers here and they said its better without radios, it makes the racing more interesting,” McQuaid said.

“That's the view the UCI holds for all the races and we stick to the position that cycling is better without them. The riders are more responsible for themselves and make decision by themselves. We hope it’ll still be like that in the future.”

The UCI recently bargained with the teams association, the AIGCP, to study a full radio ban in 2012 rather than impose it at the World Tour level. In return, the teams agreed not to boycott the Tour of Beijing.

McQuaid arrived from Switzerland where he had attended the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Executive Committee meeting. In light of Alberto Contador’s Court of Arbitration of Sport case, McQuaid said that talks are underway to review the time needed for the sporting justice procedures to reach a final verdict.

McQuaid accepted that the Contador case is casting a cloud over the sport.

“It’s unfortunate that sporting justice takes so long,” he said. “It’s out of our hands and there’s nothing we can do but wait for the result. When justice is done by an independent tribunal, we’ll accept that decision.”

“A discussion is ongoing at the international level. Hopefully in the years to come we’ll find a quicker solution to expedite these cases - and in a better way.”