Brian Cookson appoints three new UCI vice-presidents

Brian Cookson has appointed three new UCI vice-presidents, overhauling the administration that assisted former leader Pat McQuaid.

Egyptian Mohamed Azzam, Australian Tracey Gaudry and Frenchman David Lappartient will comprise the second tier of the UCI hierarchy under Cookson, who was elected president in Florence, Italy yesterday.

"This is a new administration, I want to emphasise that, we will be making some changes," Cookson told journalists at a press conference during the junior men's road world championship this morning.

"I've already appointed three new vice presidents with the agreement and support of the management committee this morning. We're going to take the UCI in a new direction. There's a lot of work to be done and there's a lot of changes to be made. I won't have all the answers to everything within a few days but we're certainly going to start this journey in the right way."

Azzam is the head of the Africa federation, Gaudry the Oceania federation and Lappartient the president of the European Cycling Union. The trio replaces Korean Hee Cho, Italian Renato Di Rocco and Portugal's Artur Lopes whom worked under McQuaid.

Questions on amnesty, anti-doping and the state of women's professional cycling were put to Cookson in the brief press conference. There was no discussion on whether former president McQuaid could have a place in Cookson's administration.

"The first thing I'll be doing is putting in a call to the president of the IOC [International Olympic Committee] to make sure we have a good, strong relationship," Cookson said.

Twitter: @SophieSmith86

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