Following the surprise dismissal of Matt White from the Garmin-Cervélo team on Sunday, Cycling Australia has said that it plans to look into the situation and examine what exactly was the background to the developments.
White was fired after senior team management said they learned that he had broken its internal rules by referring Trent Lowe to a clinic in Valencia run by controversial Spanish doctor Luis del Moral.
The incident happened in April 2009; according to the team, Lowe was sent there for VO2 max and body composition testing. CEO Jonathan Vaughters said that he felt that White was guilty of a ‘stupid mistake’ rather than anything more serious, but that the team’s strict rules about using outside doctors meant he had to go. Vaughters also stated that the team had verified that no other members of the squad had seen Del Moral.
Cycling Australia recently appointed White to the position of Professional Men’s Road Coordinator, taking over from Neil Stephens who is moving to the future Green Edge team. Because of this link to White, it has undertaken to look into the Garmin-Cervélo situation.
''We're very, very light on for any information or facts. We simply have no information at this stage which in any way adversely reflects on Matt White,'' said Cycling Australian president Klaus Mueller to the Sydney Morning Herald.
''He comes to us on the highest recommendations and with the highest of reputations. And, quite candidly, we don't quite understand the nature of the allegations that are being made. We've got to investigate those, and find out exactly what the allegations are, and we've got to set in train these investigations as a matter of urgency.
''We will try to find those out and do that starting [today]. And hopefully we'll have a chance, once we know what those allegations are, to have a talk to Matt about it.''
Cycling Australia’s former high performance director Shayne Bannan said that CA’s inquiry is the correct route to take.
“'I was surprised [by the news] when you look at the team and the progress they have made over the last two years. Matt played a major role in that,” he told the Herald.
“But I think CA have made the right decision by saying that they will have an investigation and go through it with Whitey and make a decision from there. The first point of call is to see what CA do and then go from there.”
Cycling Australia and other national federations were asked last year to look into allegations by Floyd Landis of doping on the US Postal Service team, involving a number of riders from different countries. White was one of those implicated by Landis. Despite the fact that the allegations were made eight months ago, none of those federations have reported any outcome.
With Cycling Australia now deciding to examine the Garmin-Cervélo situation, perhaps there will finally be news on the earlier enquiry.