The eight-month doping exile of Matt White has finally come to an end and he was immediately drafted again by Australian team Orica-GreenEdge as a team director.
It was announced by the team that Orica-GreenEdge would implement all the recommendations of the report by anti-doping expert Nicki Vance and this would mean Neil Stephens will stay at GreenEdge as another director. The team also disclosed that White, who is already with the team at the Tour of Switzerland and is likely to have an important role later this month with their lineup for the Tour de France, will return on probation of 12 months.
Team general manager Shayne Bannan said the appointment of White is consistent with the framework for treating past and future offenses recommended in the Vance Report and the team has gone further by making Matt White’s appointment subject to a 12-month probationary period. Bannan added that this is all part of a constant evaluation structure we are putting in place regarding our management and we are not only fully committed to using the report as a guideline for our team, but would also like to continually use it as the best possible basis for our decision-making when approaching key elements of the sport.
Matt White Reappointed By GreenEdge
The Australian former professional road racing cyclist Matthew (“Matt”) White’s most notable results are winning a stage of the 1999 Tour de Suisse and another stage victory at the 2005 Tour Down Under. In 2012, he admitted to using performance enhancing drugs while on the US Postal squad and stood down from his role with Orica- GreenEdge on 13 October 2012. Matt White was sacked on 17 October 2012 as a national coach by Cycling Australia due to his use of performance enhancing drugs.
The former teammate of disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong and directeur sportif at Orica-GreenEdge, the Australian was named in the report before he confessed to doping while riding for US Postal team between 2001 and 2003. At that time, a statement was issued on the team’s official website by Gerry Ryan, the Orica-GreenEdge owner, which stated that Orica-GreenEdge is a clean team and our commitment to being clean has been a foundation principle of the team since the day of its inception and to maintain public confidence in our strict adherence to this principle Orica-GreenEdge has appointed an eminent and independent external expert to audit the rigor and effectiveness of the team’s anti-doping policies and procedures.
The statement also revealed that Orica-GreenEdge will not step back from taking any necessary decision to protect the integrity of the sport and the team and to restore the confidence of cycling fans around the world and Orica-GreenEdge believes a hard-line approach is an essential prerequisite to continue in the sport with credibility. The statement from the Australian team also stated the team has appointed Nicki Vance to lead this review and Vance established the testing and international programs for the Australian Sports Drug Agency (ASDA), headed up the anti-doping program for the Sydney organizing committee for the Olympic Games and was a start up director for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
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