Matt White has been sacked from his role as directeur sportif at Orica-GreenEDGE after admitting to doping during his racing career.
White, a team-mate of Lance Armstrong at US Postal between 2001 and 2003, confessed after being named in the 1,000-page United States Anti-Doping Agency dossier which exposed Armstrong as a “serial cheat”.
White was immediately sacked from his position as elite men’s road co-ordinator at Cycling Australia and temporarily stood down from his role at Orica-GreenEDGE while the WorldTour team considered his future.
Now the team has confirmed that White has been sacked and that it will conduct a “full external expert review of its policies and procedures to re-affirm its hard-line stance against doping”.
Orica-GreenEDGE owner Gerry Ryan said: “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.
“To maintain public confidence in our strict adherence to this principle OGE has appointed an eminent and independent external expert to audit the rigour and effectiveness of the team’s anti-doping policies and procedures.”
The team has appointed Nicki Vance, who established the testing programme for the Australian Sports Drug Agency and who was a start-up director for the World Anti-Doping Agency, to lead the review.
Orica-GreenEDGE say the Vance Review has been setup with two objectives: “to confirm that Orica-GreenEDGE’s anti-doping policies, protocols and recruitment procedures are world’s best practice and are being implemented without exception, and “to recommend and oversee the implementation of any necessary enhancements”.
Ryan added: “Professional cycling is at a cross roads. The future of the sport is being determined by what we do today. OGE 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.
“It’s time to put our values to work. OGE believes a hard-line approach is an essential pre-requisite to continue in the sport with credibility.”
