UCI President McQuaid says cycling is not in crisis

By Martyn Herman

LONDON (Reuters) - Pat McQuaid, president of cycling's governing body, has rejected claims that the sport is in crisis despite another Tour de France ruined by doping.

The sport's most prestigious event sank to new depths on Wednesday when race leader Michael Rasmussen was dramatically sacked by his Rabobank team and thrown out of the race.

Rasmussen's exit followed positive tests for pre-race favourite Alexander Vinokourov of Kazakhstan and Italy's Cristian Moreni.

"I don't accept that the sport is in crisis. I can see the sport is going through a difficult period but that is a period of change and I can see at the far end of that period the sport will come out of it a lot better and a lot stronger," McQuaid told BBC radio on Thursday.

World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) chief Dick Pound earlier told the BBC that cycling had failed to deal with doping a decade earlier and that "the chickens had come home to roost".

Lorenz Schlaefli, head of the Swiss Cycling Federation, even suggested cycling was powerless to stop a "mafia" like control of the sport and that it was time to start from scratch.

"It's a tough thing to say, but at the moment we have a situation in cycling where the federations are fighting against a mafia made up of those with financial interests in the sport," Schlaefli told Swissinfo.

"It's all down to a question of money and it doesn't just concern the riders -- it's the doctors, the physiotherapists, the mechanics, the managers...we have to change everything."