CYCLING:A PLANNED vote of no confidence in UCI president Pat McQuaid won't happen at Cycling Ireland's upcoming agm, with the delayed publication of the Usada report into Lance Armstrong and the UCI's response causing the Swords cycling club to miss the deadline for submitting motions.

However, club member Conor McGrane told The Irish Times there is another card which can be played. “We are still hoping to persuade Cycling Ireland to bring an egm to discuss a vote of no confidence in the leadership of the UCI,” he said yesterday.

McGrane has worked as Cycling Ireland’s doctor since 2005, although the no-confidence push is independent of that. He’s firmly anti-doping and cites this as a big reason for his own stance on the subject. “My dissatisfaction as a doctor is the health risks that riders are being put under due to the lack of the containing and control over doping,” he said, “as well as what was an effective legalisation of EPO with the 50 per cent haematocrit rule in the ’90s.

“In addition, there’s also what seems to be a conflict of interest brought on by the accepting of money from Lance Armstrong by the UCI. When Armstrong returned to the sport in 2009, he was also given an exemption to the rule saying that riders had to have six months of out-of-competition tests before they can begin racing.

“When you have such a high profile rider, with suspicions over him, being exempted from those regulations, it doesn’t send a great signal down to the rest of the sport.”

In other news, Connor McConvey, who found out recently there would no place for him on the An Post Grant Thornton Seán Kelly team for next year, is scrambling to secure a slot with an overseas squad for 2013. The 24-year-old Belfast rider finished seventh in the An Post Rás in May and was also sixth in the Irish road race championships. However, he found it hard to maintain top form at other times due to a now-healed virus. He is hoping to pick up a slot on another team prior to the start of next year.

“It’s frustrating as I really only got definite word last week that I would have to start looking around,” he told The Irish Times. “It’s very late in the year to be in this position . . . Most of the teams in Britain are all full up, although I’m hoping that maybe something can come through with Roger Hammond’s new team. Many of the French teams I’ve contacted are also full, and I don’t really have a contact in Italy.”

Two years ago the former mountain bike rider finished fourth in the Rás and was also eighth on a stage of the Mi-Août Bretonne. He became overtrained and took several months away from cycling, then returned with renewed motivation.

WEEKEND FIXURES

Saturday: Cycling Ireland road commission agm, Park Hotel, Clonmel, noon.

Sunday: Fixx Supercross Cup round three, Tymon Park; Thurles Halloween Criterium, 2.30.