The International Cycling Union’s (UCI) management committee meets tomorrow. I sent the following letter to the US representative, Mike Plant. Follow this link to find your representative.

Please consider sending a letter.


Mr. Plant,

I am a longtime fan of professional cycling. I suffered through Festina, but became hopeful afterwards that sincere efforts were being made to bring doping under control. When a test was developed for EPO and later the biological passport, I became more confident that the testing procedures were in place to catch anyone doping. Over the last several years, even the most positive cycling fan had become suspicious of many riders and teams competing in the sport. We watched races like the Tour with the underlying question always present: “were they doping”.

Fast forward to now and the recognition by fans that we had no idea how pervasive doping was in the professional ranks. Further, we have no idea how prevalent doping still is. To make matters worse we have cycling’s governing body failing to do its job – police cycling.

I am waiting to see what UCI does before I make the decision whether or not I will continue to participate as a fan in the sport. In my opinion, UCI must remove both the president Pat McQuaid and honorary president Hein Verbruggen. At best, they are inept in overseeing the sport of cycling.

Moreover, equally critical is to remove the promotional aspect of the UCI’s mission. Mr. McQuaid stated on Monday that he saw no problem with accepting “donations”. This must not continue! It is impossible to police and promote the sport within the same entity; it is an inherent conflict of interest.

Please take fans concerns seriously and do what you can to save our sport and reestablish some integrity to it by taking the necessary steps specified above to restore integrity to the UCI.

Sincerely,