POC has say on cycling problem

A resolution to the crisis bugging the national sports association of cycling lies on the lap of the Philippine Olympic Committee and any local race that does not include foreign riders need not be sanctioned by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).

And despite the irritation the failure of cycling leaders to settle the crisis brings, the good news is a UCI suspension of the Philippines could still be a year away, thanks to the world body’s rationality on the issue.

Also, national cyclists are practically free to compete in any local race although under the prevailing situation, the riders have been barred from the qualifyings of Air21’s Tour Pilipinas 2003 by their head coach, Jumel Lorenzo.

Patrick McQuaid, a member of the UCI’s powerful management committee based in Switzerland, made this response to queries surrounding the cycling crisis that has put national riders in the losing end.

"All [resolution of the cycling crisis] have to be done under the auspices and with the approval of the POC," said McQuaid, the Irish UCI official who was in the Philippines from 1996 to 1998 for the then Marlboro Tour.

"The POC has to work closely on the issue," said McQuaid. "The POC may set up and recognize a Philippine [cycling] federation and may put in an independent administrator, who’ll be from the [outside] of cycling to run things for a year in order to prepare the way for proper elections, etc."

The UCI, through its president Hein Verbruggen, has recently asked the POC to intervene into the issue that has Ponciano Regalado Jr. and Antonio Cruz disputing the NSA leadership. Regalado, under investigation by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) for alleged irregularities, used to head the Philippine Amateur Cycling Association (PACA) but after he was ejected from the NSA, he created a breakaway Philippine Cycling Federation (PCF).

Cruz has since been elevated from executive vice president to president of the PACA, the association name which, in the absence of a suspension order from the UCI, according to McQuaid, remains as the official Philippine federation name in the UCI roster.

The issue on the national cyclists being banned from the Tour 2003 by their coach, Lorenzo, have reached fever-pitch when Lito Atilano, topnotcher in the Air21 race’s prequalifying last Sunday, was suspended from the national team.

It was learned though that the national riders are enthusiastic about joining the Tour Pilipinas 2003 qualifyings but could not defy Lorenzo for fear of losing their slots in the team. The cyclists, however, are hoping POC and PSC officials, who are now supervising the team in the absence of a UCI-recognized NSA, would give them the go signal to join the Air21 event.