The madness of King McQuaid. Boston tea-party on wheels.

//The madness of King McQuaid. Boston tea-party on wheels.

The madness of King McQuaid. Boston tea-party on wheels.

King McQuaid, George III, separated at birth?

King George the 3rd, known these days as Patrick McQuaid, royal figure at the UCI, is distressed by the open revolt and “blackmail” of his subjects.

The team and international riders association (AIGCP and CPA) have threatened the UCI with a boycott of the Tour of Beijing if the organization does not rescind the wildly unpopular radio ban by May 1.

Despite massive pressure from teams, sponsors and riders, the king has turned a blind eye and plugged both ears, slipped on a powdered wig and wrote a new proclamation:

“(The) UCI has no requirement to consider itself bound by input from a particular stakeholder in deciding on the governance of the sport of cycling but out of consideration and good governance, UCI welcomes and considers any input. …

“Simply put: the system does not have to adequately represent the interest of the teams and their employees (interests which, by the way, conflict among these two at many times) – or of any other particular stakeholder, it has to represent the best interests of the sport which is primordial.” In other word, it’s the classic taxation without representation scenario.

Sounds like revolution to Twisted Spoke and McQuaid will go down in defeat like King George, who later did go blind, deaf and deep into dementia. In the famous Declaration of Independence, the rebels accused King George of “repeated injuries and usurpations” and “absolute Tyranny.” That almost sounds like a quote from Jonathan Vaughters.

Speaking of Vaughters, he made it clear today that hostilities have reached a new level. “We’ve been pushing back at the UCI privately since that time, but have only recently decided as a group to go public with our objections. The teams are unified more than ever,” Vaughters said.

Radio Shack’s Johan Bruyneel tweeted his support for the Beijing revolt: ‘”When dictatorship is a fact, revolution becomes a right.” – Victor Hugo.” Always work a French writer into the revolution — the English hate the French.

Somebody with good sense, political savvy and a DVD of The Madness of King George better run to the castle. The King has gone mad and the rebels have loaded guns, radios and ear pieces.

By |2019-02-03T16:21:12-08:00March 17th, 2011|Uncategorized|12 Comments

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12 Comments

  1. Heidi March 18, 2011 at 12:59 pm - Reply

    That letter to the riders was unbelievable! Condescending, threatening, and incendiary all at the same time! Any good points McQuaid made were lost in the arrogant tone of his letter. Completely unproductive. He sure knows how to win friends and influence people! (Well, he DOES influence people, but not in the way he intends!)

    • TwistedSpoke March 18, 2011 at 5:05 pm - Reply

      Mcquaid is so phenominally clueless it's shocking. He's George Bush all over again. Matt

  2. Jason Crawford March 20, 2011 at 8:26 am - Reply

    I think at this point it's all about Ego for McQuaid. From what I've been able to understand of the situation it seems like a very unilateral decision and that only continues to drive dissension among the ranks. For him to specifically call out riders such as Jens Voigt is absurd and he shown that he in no way is an effective and trusted leader of the sport.

    • TwistedSpoke March 20, 2011 at 1:04 pm - Reply

      Jason, McQuaid is the biggest nagative in the sport, his incompetence is monumental. Matt

  3. @CycleItalia March 20, 2011 at 2:17 pm - Reply

    This issue has descended into the equivalent of three-year olds fighting in the sandbox for the best toys. McQuaid and the UCI are quite often wrong and certainly arrogant but in this case I think they're right in getting rid of radios while the teams are using the issue to further their own interests at the long-term risk to the sport. The riders and directors were the ones going on strike against dope-testing and helmet requirements awhile back — so do we really want THEM making the decisions? The UCI needs to be blown up and rebuilt from the ground up, but cycling does NOT need an F1 or MOTOGP style organization running things.

    • TwistedSpoke March 20, 2011 at 2:44 pm - Reply

      You make some good points about helmets and dope testing and given the international charcter of the sport, one strong governing body is desperately needed. The real and only major problem is McQuaid himself and his autocratic and clueless management style. I don't think anybody in the entire sport — from riders to sponsors to equipement manufacturers to team managers thinks he does even a mediocre job. The man must go. Matt

  4. Karl March 20, 2011 at 8:10 pm - Reply

    As much as I like watching Jens Voigt, after McQuaid insulted him, Jens needs to retire after this season and take over the UCI. He can even do it guerilla style like Grant Wahl is trying to take over FIFA. http://tinyurl.com/45tmv5o

    • TwistedSpoke March 21, 2011 at 9:16 am - Reply

      Karl, we're for anyone taking over the UCI including Muammar el-Qaddafi. I think he'd do a far better job running the UCI. Matt

  5. […] McQuaid comes across as a blind and foolish leader last seen played by former US president Bush and Mad King George. Share Uncategorized Angelo Zomegnan, breakaway, Jonathan Vaughters, Patrick […]

  6. […] When news broke that UCI president Patrick McQuaid threatened sponsors to make sure their teams rode the Tour of Beijing, nobody was surprised or shocked. Such is the madness of King Pat. […]

  7. Casati October 8, 2011 at 1:25 pm - Reply

    Lads Pat isnt that bad- he took on one of the worlds toughest sports right when the drugs issue gained maximum exposure, i dont know how he motivates himself to stay in the job

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