Retired judge Otton to lead UCI’S Lance probe
Recommendations critical to restoring confidence
GENEVA, Nov 30, (AP): An investigation panel examining the International Cycling Union’s links to the Lance Armstrong doping case will include British Paralympic great Tanni GreyThompson.
The UCI said Friday that the threemember independent commission will be chaired by retired British judge Philip Otton. His sports legal cases include a Premier League relegation dispute centered on Carlos Tevez, and Chelsea’s tactics in trying to lure Ashley Cole from Arsenal.
Otton will work alongside Australian lawyer Malcolm Holmes and GreyThompson, a 10-time Paralympic gold medalist in wheelchair racing who is now a lawmaker in the upper chamber of Britain’s Parliament.
They will meet in London from April 9-26, and have access to “all relevant documents in the control or possession of the UCI” including bank and telephone records and laboratory test results, according to a statement of their terms of reference. The panel has a June 1 deadline to deliver its report.
“The appointment of these three eminent figures demonstrates clearly that the UCI wants to get to the bottom of the Lance Armstrong affair and put cycling back on the right track,” UCI President Pat McQuaid said in a statement. “We will listen to and act on the Commission’s recommendations.”
The announcement came two days before a group of the UCI’s and Armstrong’s fiercest critics, including three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond, meets in London to press for changes in how cycling is run.
The UCI asked Court of Arbitration for Sport board president John Coates last month to help create a panel to investigate suspicions raised by the US AntiDoping Agency’s damning report into widespread doping by Armstrong’s teams during his record seven Tour wins from 1999-2005.
Armstrong was stripped of seven Tour de France titles and banned for life.
McQuaid said UCI had no part in choosing the three officials, who have decided terms of reference for their work which could be key in rebuilding - or wrecking - the governing body’s damaged credibility.
The commission will closely scrutinize McQuaid, who was elected as UCI president weeks after Armstrong first retired in 2005, and his predecessor, Hein Verbruggen, in their working relations with Armstrong.
The governing body denies claims made by former Armstrong teammates to USADA that it covered up suspicious samples from Armstrong in exchange for payments totaling $125,000, or that the American rider enjoyed special protection.
“The Commission’s report and recommendations are critical to restoring confidence in the sport of cycling and in the UCI as its governing body,” McQuaid said. “We will cooperate fully with the Commission and provide them with whatever they need to conduct their inquiry and we urge all other interested stakeholders to do the same.”