Brian Cookson has pledged to end the personal conflicts that have dogged international cycling if he replaces Pat McQuaid as president of the UCI, claiming he is a "peacemaker, not a streetfighter".

The British Cycling president announced his intention to challenge McQuaid for the top job in world cycling yesterday, despite claiming earlier he was not interested in the job. “The sheer weight of people asking me to consider becoming a candidate finally became something I had to take notice of,” said Cookson. “I’ve had hundreds of people emailing me asking me to do something about the UCI. They are unhappy at the way anti-doping has been handled and the allegations that have not been put to bed about collusion.”

The 61-year-old said cleaning up the sport's reputation was paramount, claiming it had been "disfigured by doping" after the UCI was implicated in the Lance Armstrong scandal. Cookson said. "I don't want to be too critical of Pat but we haven't done enough yet to move the situation on from the confessions of Lance Armstrong.

"I think there has been an approach to leadership that has been confrontational rather than peacemaking - my natural modus operandi is to be a peacemaker rather than a streetfighter."
Guardian Service