Stepping down ... Matt White has admitted to doping while with US Postal. Source: Matt White / AAP
Matt White, one of the most influential figures in Australian cycling, has confessed to doping during his time at Lance Armstrong's disgraced US Postal team.
White voluntarily stood down from his position as sports director at Orica-GreenEDGE and Cycling Australia men's road co-ordinator on Saturday, delivering a damaging blow to the sport's image in Australia.
The 38-year-old is the first Australian casualty from the US Anti-Doping Agency's damning 1000-page plus report on the US Postal team's doping regime.
The report claimed seven-time Tour de France champion Armstrong's team conducted the "most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping program that sport has ever seen".
The document contained the sworn testimony of 11 of Armstrong's former teammates with disgraced Tour de France winner Floyd Landis stating he had shared testosterone and EPO with White in 2003.
"I am aware my name has been mentioned during talks that USADA has had with former team mates of mine in their investigation regarding doping activities at the US Postal Service team," White said in a statement.
"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."
The admission is a major embarrassment for Orica-GreenEDGE and Cycling Australia.
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It came only hours after Orica-GreenEDGE's general manager Shayne Bannan said White had the team's full backing.
"We fully support Matthew White and trust his integrity as a sports director with us," Bannan said in a statement.
White, who rode for the US Postal team between 2001 and 2003, said he had not been involved in any doping in his roles at Cycling Australia and Orica-GreenEDGE.
"In my roles with Slipstream Sports, Cycling Australia and now at Orica-GreenEDGE, I have always acted within the ethos of clean sport and I am very proud to have worked with the new generation of clean superstars," he said.
"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.''
White 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.
"I stopped my racing career because I had the opportunity to be part of something that had the potential to actually change cycling," White said.
"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."
White said he would not be making any further comment beyond his statement until Cycling Australia and Orica-GreenEDGE had decided on his case.
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