Lappartient’s rough first six months in charge
Emblazoned on the brochure which set out David Lappartient’s bid to become president of world cycling, there was an image of the 44-year-old wearing a crisp suit and polished shoes, riding a bike around a velodrome. Perhaps it was just the awkward scene, looking like a dad on a skateboard, which provoked his forced smile, his uncomfortable hunch, but that is the expression he has worn ever since.
Six months have passed since Lappartient won the UCI’s election, ousting his rival Brian Cookson from the helm of the troubled sport. We now know the Frenchman was served something of a hospital pass, which he gainfully caught only to have the wind knocked out of him, several times, and even now he is still trying to catch his breath.
His tenure has been pockmarked by a litany of cycling scandals, big and small, old and new, gently pummelling him while he works. The first blow was almost immediate: we don’t know exactly when Lappartient was informed of Chris Froome’s adverse sample for the asthma drug Salbutamol, but it was probably around his election night, a grave whisper in the ear some time between popping champagne and getting his feet under the desk.
Two weeks later, the first case of a covert motor in a race in France was discovered by police, intensifying the spotlight on Lappartient’s key election pledge to tackle mechanical doping. The unidentified cheat later ominously told a radio station: “I’m not the only one doing it.”
There were also serious allegations made against Fabian Cancellara in a book which accused the Swiss rider of using a motor during his career, something he denies. A day later Lappartient appointed a new commissioner specifically to tackle mechanical doping.
Then there was the minor diplomatic incident caused when organisers of the Giro d’Italia giddily announced the 2018 race would begin in Israel, labelling the first stage ‘West Jerusalem’. The term angered the Israeli government and forced a climbdown in another embarrassment for the sport. Lappartient might consider that rather inconsequential – the race is likely to be tainted anyway, given how Froome’s Salbutamol case has rumbled on. The chances are he will be on the start line in Jerusalem with the case unresolved and the doubts lingering.
And then there are the historical allegations against Bradley Wiggins and Team Sky, which brought Lappartient out into an open interview with the BBC in which he announced yet another investigation into what he labelled “cheating”.
The irony was that although Lappartient, a seasoned election winner and political mover, gave impressively honest answers, his attempts to show strength in calling for Team Sky to provisionally suspend Froome only served to highlight his own limited powers to intervene or speed up the process. There he was again, crisp suit, polished shoes, a forced smile, an uncomfortable hunch.
There are some promising signs from cycling’s new leadership. Lappartient on Wednesday unveiled new technology to tackle mechanical doping, and he has maintained his strong rhetoric on Team Sky’s controversies, even drawing criticism from Froome in response.
But he has been hamstrung from the start by the legacy he inherited. Cookson was supposed to be a breath of fresh air after Pat McQuaid’s toxic era, but he became too close to Team Sky and tarred by British Cycling’s bullying scandal, departing under a cloud as the only president to have served just one term.
Lappartient was supposed to bring change too, but instead he has been caught in a twisted take on Team Sky’s old mantra: when all the little things run in one direction it becomes impossible to stem the flow. For better or worse, he has three and a half years to try.