Controversial sports administrator who oversaw the modernisation of cycling but was caught up in the Festina and Lance Armstrong affairsHein Verbruggen, who has died aged 75 from leukaemia, was a former head of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), cycling´s world governing body, and a divisive figure accused of kickbacks and complicity in doping. A member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Dutchman was a modernising force who dragged the sport into the 21st century, but he ended up at the heart of the two greatest doping scandals the sport has known: the Festina blood doping bust of 1998 and Lance Armstrong´s fall from grace in 2012.Born in Helmond in the Netherlands, Verbruggen studied economics and marketing at Nyenrode Business University, and became involved with cycling in 1970 as a marketing manager for Mars, when he persuaded the confectionery company to sponsor Belgium´s top team, Flandria, for two years. By 1984 he was president of the body that oversaw professional cycling, the Fédération Internationale du Cycliste Professionel, and in 1991 he became head of the UCI, which governs both professional and amateur cycling, and which expanded immensely under his tenure. Continue reading...
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