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 Brian Cookson told Reuters in an interview that the UCI had also
covered up Lance Armstrong's positive tests for drugs in the 1999
Tour de France.
"The UCI was always going to prioritize the image of the sport and
the business of the sport over the integrity and the honesty of the
sport, and that was a very bad signal that was given out at that
time," he said.
Cookson was speaking at the cycling governing body's headquarters in
Aigle, Switzerland, on the day of the release of a report by the
Independent Reform Commission, which was set up last year to look
into the sport's ugly past including the Festina affair and Lance
Armstrong doping scandal.
The CIRC report said the then UCI management had colluded with
Armstrong to protect him as the American cheated his way to seven
Tour de France titles.
"After the Festina affair in 1998, the 1999 Tour which was supposed
to be the tour of renewal. In that tour, Lance Armstrong had a
positive test for cortisone, which was covered up by the UCI,"
Cookson said.
He added that doping in cycling was far from eradicated but an
environment now existed "where riders can now at least be
competitive when riding clean".
The former UCI management's shortcomings were first exposed in 2012
when the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) published its reasoned
decision after banning Armstrong, who later admitted to cheating,
for doping.
Cookson took over as UCI president in 2013 with a mission to clean
up the badly-tainted sport.
The CIRC report said: "UCI exempted Lance Armstrong from rules,
failed to target test him despite the suspicions, and publicly
supported him against allegations of doping."
There was, however, no evidence of outright corruption in the
report.
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"I'm happy that it reports that there was no corruption and no
complicity in relation to doping and that, for me, is very
important," Pat McQuaid, from whom Cookson took over the presidency,
told Reuters.
McQuaid's predecessor, Hein Verbruggen, said that the CIRC's main
criticism was that the policies put in place to combat doping during
his presidency were inadequate.
"That is a rather cheap shot from people who today have the benefit
of 25 years of hindsight," Verbruggen said in a statement to
Reuters.
The CIRC interviewed 174 officials, team managers, riders and former
riders over the course of an investigation that lasted over a year.
It found that doping was less prevalent but still endemic.
Armstrong himself was interviewed twice by the commission.
"I am deeply sorry for many things I have done," Armstrong said in a
statement. "However, it is my hope that revealing the truth will
lead to a bright, dope-free future for the sport I love."
(Writing by Julien Pretot; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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