McQuaid out: Cookson in!

At last, a great day for cycling - the unlovely Pat McQuaid has finally been prised out of the UCI, and we have someone new in charge.

The new guy is silver-topped Brian Cookson, OBE, who has been the President of British Cycling since 1997, when he (and the rest of the committee) was brought in to rescue it from insolvency - yes, that's how bad a state British cycling was in, fifteen years ago: insolvent. Under his leadership, the UK has won 19 Olympic Gold medals, 28 Paralympic Gold medals, the Tour de France twice, and multiple World Championship titles in disciplines of Road, Track and BMX.

Not bad for an unpaid job eh?

General opinion seems to be that he's too "nice" to take on this role, and that someone more forceful will be required. People who say this clearly have no idea what it's like to get anything done in Britain, what with obstructive local government, budgetary restraints, and the general inertia of the populace. Brian Cookson has taken a sport that was well below Darts in popularity, not to mention the insolvent bit, and has turned it around to the point where we won the Tour twice - TWICE!! - in successive years, with two different riders.

To have done that is a fantastic achievement, and shows a determination to succeed that is not visible on his rather gentle-looking face.

In fact, there was a good indication of this man's character in the actual election - there had been over an hour of arguing about whether McQuaid would be allowed to stand or not,  with some delegates arguing that there should firstly be a vote as to whether his nomination was valid or not.  Brian Cookson stepped in, firmly saying "Right! That's IT! I have had ENOUGH of this arguing. Him or me - vote now."

Which is what they did, and he won, 24 votes to 18.

I would have liked to have seen him have a resounding victory (43 for, 1 against, would have been my ideal result), but there are some rather nasty undercurrent factors in play - McQuaid does undoubtedly have some real supporters, but it is entirely possible that there are some delegates who felt that they had to vote for him - even though it was a secret ballot, if he were to have won again, and found out who had not voted for him, there might well have been repercussions.

However, there were enough honest men (and I use the term "men" to be short for "human") in the room to get  Brian Cookson elected, and now he can get his new broom out, and sweep those corners!

So what do we think his first list of jobs will be?

1) Send a minion round to McQuaid's office and prevent him shredding incriminating documents.
2) Lock said office and guard it against "accidental" arson and destruction of evidence,
3) Get a new office, a new computer, new shelves, new filing cabinets, and start afresh.
4) Rebuild relationships with WADA, USADA etc
5) Rebuild relationships with sponsors, tour organisers etc.
6) Rebuild relationships with riders - listening to their feedback re race radios, safety etc.

It's going to be a while before we see any visible changes, I imagine - something as big as the UCI is a bit like one of those massive tankers that take five miles to slow down or change direction. But give him time, and I am hoping that we will see real improvements in cycling today.

Sort of interesting that there was no third option for the job, eh? No-one else in the entire world of cycling was prepared to take on McQuaid... wonder why? Well, obviously it's a horrible job - everyone is going to hate you as soon as you start changing things, and you have all your predecessor's cronies to deal with. Plus everyone will be watching you for a sign of weakness, or a hint that you are turning to the dark side.

Not an easy job.

But welcome, Brian, and I hope you make as good a job of it as you did with the turnaround of British Cycling!