ICU leadership challenger Brian Cookson vows to restore trust and credibility to cycling

British Cycling president Brian Cookson has vowed to restore trust and credibility to cycling as he outlined his leadership challenge to International Cycling Union incumbent Pat McQuaid.

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Cookson plans to investigate claims of complicity of the UCI in the use of performance-enhancing drugs and to work together with cross-sport organisations such as WADA, with whom McQuaid has had a public spat. Cookson would establish "a completely independent anti-doping unit, managed and governed outside of the UCI and in full cooperation with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)," he said, as he is unhappy with the current situation at the UCI headquarters in Switzerland. Cookson added: "The office of anti-doping is just down the office from the president's office. That can't be right if we're going to have a really independent, genuinely transparent way of handling anti-doping. "We have to separate those things out physically, literally and administratively. That has to be done in a way supported by WADA." As well as rebuilding trust, tackling anti-doping and growing cycling globally, Cookson promised to develop women's cycling, overhaul road racing and strengthen the sport's credibility within the Olympic Movement, expanding the number of athletes permitted and disciplines. Cookson would have to relinquish his role as British Cycling president if successful and has already stepped back from the operating board of Team Sky, a liaison committee between British Cycling and Tour Racing Limited, the company which runs Team Sky.