Tom Van Damme, head of the Belgian Cycling Federation, has told Cyclingnews that Brian Cookson lost the UCI presidential election because of cultural differences within his presidency and because David Lappartient ran a strong campaign.
On Thursday Lappartient crushed Cookson 37-8 in the delegate vote – a result that few predicted. On the eve of the election many expected a close race but that Lappartient was just ahead.
In the end nearly all of Cookson’s support from four years ago abandoned him for Lappartient. Cookson later said that delegates lied to him and that he was expecting somewhere in the region of twenty-plus votes.
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"David had a better campaign,” Van Damme told Cyclingnews.
“He was more active and it was better managed. I think that’s the reason. Look at how David was always present and expressing himself.”
Lappartient’s power base came from the 15 European delegates. In March, at the UEC elections the Frenchman stacked the candidates with his own supporters, while British Cycling made a huge tactical blunder in proposing two candidates. This split their vote and meant that they had no delegates in Bergen with either voting power or an inside track into which way the vote was going. That said, Cookson was still hoping to retain some support from the European delegation.
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