UCI dissolves independent commission

After statements from WADA, USADA and other stakeholders in cycling and the anti-doping field that they would not cooperate with the independent commission set up by the UCI, the cycling union has decided to dissolve the commission.

Several outside stakeholders including the independent commission itself have been calling for the establishment of a truth and reconciliation process to ensure some kind of amnesty to witnesses, a process that the UCI according to statements has been reluctant to endorse.

UCI has now changed path and has chosen to set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

“…[W]e have listened carefully to the views of WADA, USADA and cycling stakeholders and have decided that a truth and reconciliation process is the best way to examine the culture of doping in cycling in the past and to clear the air so that cycling can move forward,” says Pat McQuaid, UCI president according to the UCI statement.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) will be set up by the help of WADA and is assumed to be able to launch later this year.

“This is too important for rushed discussions, or hasty decisions. It is completely unrealistic to expect that we and WADA can sort through all the details of setting up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in just a couple of days,” McQuaid says.

“I hope the lessons learned from the truth and reconciliation process will help in particular to educate young riders and to help eradicate doping in its entirety from cycling,” McQuaid ends the UCI statement issued yesterday.

Read the UCI statement here