Frenchman Lappartient replaces Cookson as UCI president
This file photo taken on October 01, 2016 shows President of the French Cycling Federation (FFC) David Lappartient during the French Track Cycling championships in Bordeaux, southwestern France. Lappartient will succeed Briton Brian Cookson as UCI president after winning a landslide election on September 21, 2017 in Bergen. PHOTO | NICOLAS TUCAT |
What you need to know:
- Outgoing president Cookson garnered only eight of the 45 votes during the world cycling governing body's Congress, becoming the first UCI president to fail to earn a second term.
- The 44-year-old is also mayor of a small town in Brittany.
BERGEN
Frenchman David Lappartient will succeed Briton Brian Cookson as UCI president after winning a landslide election on Thursday in Bergen.
Outgoing president Cookson garnered only eight of the 45 votes during the world cycling governing body's Congress, becoming the first UCI president to fail to earn a second term.
It proved a remarkably one-sided vote in an election campaign many had believed would be a tight-run affair.
But in earning 37 votes, Lappartient, the incumbent European Cycling Federation president and until March the French federation president too, took a clear victory.
He had vowed in his final speech to the congress to tackle doping and technological fraud while Cookson had pledged increased investment in the continental associations and to further develop women's cycling.
Lappartient, who said he was "deeply honoured" by his election, becomes the 11th president of the UCI since its creation in 1900.
He was French federation president from 2009 until March and has been European federation president since 2013, a position he will now leave to take on his new role.
The 44-year-old is also mayor of a small town in Brittany.
Cookson, 66, had beaten Ireland's Pat McQuaid in a bitter and farcical election four years ago.
