Swiss-based Skins Compression, an Australian performance sportswear company and major sponsor of pro cycling teams and organizations since 2008, has served the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) with a legal demand for $2 million, seeking damages for alleged mismanagement and improper handling of the Lance Armstrong doping debacle.
Skins also cited UCI president Pat McQuaid and “honorary president for life” Hein Verbruggen for their handling of the crisis that Skins alleges is the main cause for a significant loss of confidence in professional cycling by the public-one that has subsequently harmed the company’s international reputation.
Skins said it invested in the sport “under the illusion that professional cycling had been fundamentally reformed to contain doping and to minimize the risks of scandals with which the brand or any sponsor could be associated.”
Skins has enlisted international law firm Bonnard Lawson of Lausanne, Switzerland, in the action against the UCI, McQuaid and Verbruggen. Skins also pledged to re-invest any funds received from its action to support the future of clean cycling and restore credibility in the sport.
“The Lance Armstrong affair has damaged world cycling to the point where its reputation is possibly irreparable,” said Skins chairman Jaimie Fuller. “As a commercial partner our reputation and credibility has potentially been significantly damaged.”
The company supports commercial cycling partners across the globe, including: Cycling Australia, USA Cycling, Team Rabobank, Team Europcar, Team Lotto Belisol and Team NetApp. Skins also provided race suits to the USA Olympic Cycling team for the London Olympics.
“When we decided to invest in cycling by becoming a sponsor, we also made a significant financial commitment into a research and development program which runs in partnership with professional cycling and cyclists,” continued Fuller. “We believe that until it was forced into action by USADA’s comprehensive report, the UCI fundamentally failed to acknowledge the issues or act to save the credibility of cycling or its commercial partners.”
UCI said in October it would accept the findings of a USADA dossier that placed Armstrong at the heart of what the agency dubbed “the biggest doping program ever in sport.”
The Associated Press reported that Irish journalist Paul Kimmage said there are “strong suspicions” that the UCI and its leaders, either directly or indirectly, helped Armstrong earn “significant sums of money in and out of competition while he doped.”
