Lance Armstrong whistle-blowers are 'scumbags', says UCI chief

The head of cycling's governing body yesterday (Monday) described the whistle-blowers who exposed Lance Armstrong's doping as "scumbags".

Pat McQuaid, the president of the International Cycling Union, attempted to restore order to a sport reeling from the revelation that its greatest icon was a drug cheat. At a press conference in Geneva, McQuaid said the UCI accepted the evidence brought against Armstrong by United States anti-doping officials, and formally stripped the American of his seven Tour de France titles.

But McQuaid, who said he would not resign despite the scale of the doping scandals which have been uncovered, then launched personal attacks on two former team-mates of Armstrong's - Tyler Hamilton and Floyd Landis - whose testimonies were crucial in exposing his use of banned substances and blood transfusions. Both have written books about their experiences evading the UCI's drug testers alongside Armstrong at the US Postal and Discovery Channel teams. Despite praising them earlier in the day for coming forward, McQuaid could not conceal his contempt for both men and other riders, who have been fiercely critical of the UCI.

McQuaid said David Millar, the leading British cyclist who confessed to drug use and now campaigns for a clean sport, asked the UCI to apologise at the press conference. "I don't think the UCI should apologise," said McQuaid. "They didn't hold Millar's hand when he stuck a needle in his backside. He is an adult and they know they are breaking the rules. It's not the president's responsibility if they go into a doping programme.

"Another thing that annoys me is that Landis and Hamilton are being made out to be heroes. They are as far from heroes as night and day. They are not heroes. They are scumbags. All they have done is damage to the sport." McQuaid sought to retract the word "scumbags" but his anger was barely concealed as he spoke at the end of a day in which he admitted the sport was facing its biggest crisis.

He expanded on his criticism of Hamilton, whose book, The Secret Race, closely resembled much of the evidence contained in the US Anti-Doping Agency report.

"We called Hamilton in [after he failed a dope test]," said McQuaid. "He said our machines were wrong. We said 'we are after you'. He was positive two, maybe three times, eventually he was thrown out of the sport. He then spends the next few years trying to prove he was a twin before he was born or something like that and prove the scientific community wrong. He loses his marriage and his money. What does he do now? Writes a book just before the USADA report is announced and is making money left right and centre. What good is he doing the sport? He's on a personal mission to make money for himself."

The UCI will meet on Friday to discuss further the findings of the USADA report and what to do next. The UCI is reluctant to call a "truth and reconciliation" commission despite the urgings yesterday of USADA, and will also decide whether to sue Armstrong for the millions of pounds of prize money he accrued during his career.

It will also rule later this week on whether or not to award Armstrong's Tour victories to other riders. However, the race's director, Christian Prudhomme, said he did not want the titles to be redistributed.

McQuaid was sure-footed when criticising Armstrong, saying he "deserved to be forgotten by cycling", but less assured when answering questions about payments the UCI received from Armstrong over five years totalling more than pounds 100,000.

The first payment of $25,000 (pounds 15,600) was made just after he was found to have a "suspicious" sample - one that falls below the threshold of a positive test - during the Tour of Switzerland in 2001. Armstrong then paid another $100,000 (pounds 62,400) to provide blood-testing machines to help anti-dopers find EPO. McQuaid admitted it may have been a mistake to take Armstrong's money but denied it was to hush up dope test results.

"We are not an agency or organisation that has unlimited funds," he said. "We are not Fifa with billions in the bank. We spend all our money on the development of the sport and when we can get sources of funding we will do so. It would have been best if we had not done it [taken the donation] but if we do it in the future it will be done in different way. If any riders came to UCI now and wanted to contribute to the development of the sport or anti-doping or training programmes then the UCI would accept that money. But we would accept it differently and announce it differently than before."

McQuaid revealed the professional teams each pay pounds 120,000 per year to help fund the UCI's anti-doping programme, which costs around pounds 5?million annually, a sum it may decide on Friday to increase.

McQuaid is suing his fellow Irishman, cyclist turned journalist Paul Kimmage, for libel for suggesting Armstrong's payments were an evidence of corruption. A fund for Kimmage has raised nearly pounds 50,000. "I have known Paul since he was in a pram," said McQuaid. "A guy that calls me corrupt, and the institution that I lead, the 100 people in the UCI that work every day for the sport of cycling corrupt, I can't accept that. I have to defend that. I don't like doing it. I don't want to do it. But I'm forced to do it. He's a journalist and he knows how far he can go and how far he should go."