Greg LeMond has announced he will run for the presidency of the UCI, the international governing body of cycling. LeMond will challenge the incumbent Pat McQuaid for the role, at the request of the anti-doping movement Change Cycling Now.

The three time Tour winner made the announcement in an interview with French newspaper Le Monde: “I'm ready. I was asked and I accepted. If we want to restore public confidence and sponsors, we must act quickly and decisively. Otherwise, cycling will die. Riders do not understand that if we continue like this, there will soon be no money in cycling.” LeMond, who is now the only American to have won the Tour following the stripping of Lance Armstrong’s titles, emphasised the need to push for change in cycling while the environment was receptive to change: “After the earthquake caused by the Armstrong case, another chance will not arise…If we want to restore public confidence and sponsors, we must act quickly and decisively. Otherwise, cycling will die. Riders do not understand that if we continue like this there will soon be no money in cycling.”

McQuaid has been the head of the UCI since 2005 and there have been calls from many for the Irishman to resign in the wake of the Lance Armstrong scandal in which it was revealed that cycling had been corrupted by on of sports most extensive and widespread doping problems. LeMond has said he believes McQuaid should resign from the UCI presidency- “If Pat McQuaid really loves cycling, as he claims, he would have resigned. He could say, Okay, I made mistakes, but now I quit to find a new leader for the UCI.”

The elections for the new UCI president are due to take place in March, 2013.

McQuaid has been the head of the UCI since 2005 and there have been calls from many for the Irishman to resign in the wake of the Lance Armstrong scandal. The USADA investigation in to the activities of Armstrong and his team mates on the US Postal Services team uncovered a widespread, complex doping system that was unparalleled in sport. The report revealed that the sport had been corrupted in a massive way, and some claimed McQuaid and the UCI, at the very least, had failed to keep the sport clean.