'Embattled UCI boss McQuaid has IOC support'

International Cycling Federation (UCI) president Pat McQuaid enjoys the support of the International Olympic Committee despite the sport’s tarnished image and the UCI’s bitter row with the World Anti-Doping Agency, the IOC said.

The UCI’s credibility has been dealt a severe blow since American Lance Armstrong admitted to doping last month after he was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.

The UCI took a further blow when it disbanded a three-person independent commission set up to investigate whether or not the world governing body had helped Armstrong to conceal his drug-taking.

“We have confidence in Mr (Pat) McQuaid as president of UCI,” IOC President Jacques Rogge told reporters on Wednesday.

“There is an ongoing discussion with WADA and UCI. We call on both parties to reconciliate and find a solution to this crisis together.”

The UCI has renewed its call for a truth and reconciliation commission but WADA has said any such work would have to be done under the original independent commission.

At a WADA media symposium in London on Tuesday, president John Fahey said if the crisis in cycling continued there would at some point be “dire consequences.”

“I would hope that within the root and file members of cycling there is recognition that it can’t continue this way without there being some dire consequences down the track,” he said.