Aussie cycling considering amnesty

Disgraced ... Matt White may not be the only Aussie cyclist to be involved in doping. Source: AFP

With one dirty little secret out, Cycling Australia is considering an amnesty to reveal just how clean Australian riders were during the Lance Armstrong doping era.

Matt White, one of the most influential figures in Australian cycling, admitted on Saturday to being involved in doping during his riding career.

He was outed in the American documents that revealed Armstrong as a drug cheat.

White has stood down from his position as Cycling Australia's (CA) men's road co-ordinator and sports director at Australian professional road team Orica-GreenEDGE.

But the question now is whether other Australians were doping during an era in which one leading rider and drug cheat, American Tyler Hamilton, says 80 per cent of the peloton were doping to some degree.

CA president Klaus Mueller admits an amnesty must be considered to reveal whether White's confession is just the tip of the iceberg.

Mueller says it is possible Australian cyclists involved in riding during that period "may have misled us".

"The material is coming out to suggest that certainly up until 2005, that there was certainly in some teams systemic cheating," Mueller said on Sunday.

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"That's one of the factors we need to take into account in determining whether there ought to be an amnesty (for Australian cyclists).

"It would be conditional on any athlete to whom we give an amnesty coming clean and disclosing all relevant issues in relation to his conduct ... and the conduct of others."

Mueller admits his organisation could have made more thorough checks before appointing White, whose future in his two key roles will be discussed at a board meeting this week.

Before taking on his current roles, White had been dismissed from another pro team, Garmin-Cervelo, for referring Australian rider Trent Rowe to now-disgraced ex-Armstrong doctor Luis Garcia del Moral.

Mueller said that matter would also be re-examined in the wake of White's admission.

When asked if CA should have been more thorough before appointing White Mueller said: "We, I suppose, were as naive as most people involved in the sport ... we didn't understand the extent of - certainly in the US Postal team - the systemic cheating taking place."

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But Mueller insists White has not compromised the integrity of Australia's national road program.

Testimony from disgraced Tour de France winner Floyd Landis outed White - the American saying he had shared testosterone and EPO with him while riding for the US Postal team in 2003.

Mueller said he spoke to White late on Saturday night and he agreed to stand aside until CA and Australia's anti-doping body ASADA had fully investigated.

White said in his statement on Saturday night: "I am sad to say that I was part of a team where doping formed part of the team's strategy, and I too was involved in that strategy.

"My involvement is something I am not proud of and I sincerely apologise to my fans, media, family and friends who trusted me and also to other athletes in my era that consciously chose not to dope.''

He stopped racing in 2007, his last team being Discovery Channel which was a continuation of the US Postal Service outfit.

He moved into management with Slipstream-Chipotle (now Garmin-Sharp) and said one of the main reasons he stopped racing was the desire to help change the sport with the team's founder Jonathan Vaughters and British rider David Millar.

"The ideas about a clean team that Dave Millar and Jonathan Vaughters spoke to me about back then, were ones that the sport desperately needed.

"A lot has changed for the better, cycling is totally different now, and I have seen these changes as an athlete and also in management with my own eyes in the last decade."

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