McQuaid, Lefevere and Prudhomme to meet

By Brecht Decaluwé in Ans

After a meeting in Liège between the AIOCC and the ASO on Saturday resulted in a request for teams to withdraw all riders who have been implicated in the Operación Puerto investigation from the Liège-Bastogne-Liège start list, Cyclingnews spoke with Quickstep director and IPCT president Patrick Lefevere about the move. The Belgian expressed his exhaustion with the never-ending case. "It took six hours to reach that statement... I'm getting tired of it.

"The CONI clears Basso, and six months later they re-open the case. Same thing with the ASO, they wait six months and now - two months before the Tour de France - they expect us to take quick decisions. Why can't the organizers take decisions themselves, in their rule books there is a rule that gives them the possibility to exclude riders with a bad reputation. Everybody's always passing on the chore to us," Lefevere said at the start of Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

There is a glimmer of hope on the horizon, however. "Anyway, the good thing is that on May 4 there's a big meeting scheduled with [UCI president Pat] McQuaid, [ASO director Christian] Prudhomme and myself," said Lefevere, "That should deliver something."