September 23, 2005 – At the UCI Annual Congress at this year’s Road Worlds in Madrid the central topic on everyone’s lips was the presidential election. After charges of corruption and infighting earlier this year by both Germany’s Sylvia Schenk, and the Spanish Cycling Federation, many wondered if Hein Verbruggen would be re-elected. But Verbruggen withdrew his candidacy before the voting began as did Malaysia’s Darsan Gill.

As many predicted, Ireland’s Pat McQuaid was elected as the new UCI President with UCI Management voting 31 to 11 in his favour over Spain’s Gregorio Moreno, the other remaining candidate.