Sometimes it’s not enough to be clean. Sometimes, you also have to be seen to be clean.
Such is the case in professional cycling at the moment, as teams, sponsors and governing bodies fall over themselves to demonstrate that they have drawn a line under the tarnished ‘Armstrong era’.
Something must be seen to be done.
Transparency is the new watchword. To be frank, it’s well overdue in cycling, after a couple of decades of dissembling, denial and (duh) doping.
Matt White’s career is the latest sacrifice at the broken altar of Cancer Jesus. After admitting to doping while a rider with Armstrong’s US Postal team, it’s not surprising that Orica-GreenEDGE (OGE) felt its credibility was straining just a bit too far with White at the helm.
To further demonstrate its squeaky clean credentials, OGE has appointed Nicki Vance, one of the world’s foremost anti-doping experts, to forensically audit its anti-doping practices and advise on how to strengthen them even further. This is a welcome step and should provide some confidence that the sport is acting to wipe out doping.
Cycling must be seen to be clean, and with the UCI bosses flapping around unwanted and ineffective, like a pigeon in the holy water, individual teams must shoulder the burden themselves.
In this context, could White be trusted in his role developing the next generation of Australian cycling talent? Was he a liability for sponsors, who don’t want to suffer the kind of brand damage that US Postal, Festina and Deutsche Telekom could tell us all about?
The hammer blow of Rabobank withdrawing its sponsorship of men’s pro cycling probably made White’s position untenable. He represented too much commercial risk. Hey, this sport is a business, too.
Something must be seen to be done.
It’s sad for White, whose first season with a young team exceeded all but the most wildly optimistic expectations.
The team won a classic at Milan-San Remo, a stage of the Giro d’Italia, a stage and the climber’s jersey at the Vuelta. I count 28 stage wins for the year across a mix of World Tour and other races. Many of these wins were from young and relatively unknown riders.
Nobody can deny that the team enjoyed plenty of success under his leadership.
The team also appears to have functioned well off the bikes, with good team spirit shown by the team’s extremely popular backstage pass videos and the ‘Call Me Maybe’ parody. These are signs of a happy team.
It will be a big shock to the squad to lose a popular team manager who was clearly performing well in his role. Finding a replacement without some skeletons won’t necessarily be easy.
Perhaps this is an opportunity for recently-retired Matt Wilson or Robbie McEwen to step up, or even for vocal anti-doping campaigner Brad McGee, if he can be enticed away from SaxoBank as it battles to keep its World Tour status.
In any case, just as Sky has been doing, OGE has done what it had to, to protect its commercial interests and its reputation, and White must take the fall.
Something must be seen to be done.
Here’s hoping his example won’t encourage others in his situation to stay quiet. The threat of career-ending banishment is a strong incentive not to stir the pot.
This is a terrible outcome, especially when many reformed dopers appear to have genuinely learnt from their mistakes. People can change.
Garmin, which has stood by Jonathan Vaughters and his band of merry confessors with the kind of pragmatism that probably isn’t possible for most teams, understands that those with a shady past can be born again as defenders of clean sport.
As for White, it would be a shame for his career in cycling to be finished. He has plenty to offer, perhaps after a suitable period of penance on the sidelines.
But, for now, something must be seen to be done.
jameswm
Guest
Am I the only one who finds the photo at the top of this article disturbing, the one with wife and Olympic medallist Jane Saville sitting on his lap? Did he coach her at some stage?
Stevo
Guest
This is all a hoax, another media stunt ! zero tolerance will not work, No new alegations have come out about White since CA and GE hired him? it was all in a letter in May 2010 to USADA from Floyd. This just encourages people to lie, so what about the other 20 odd names in USADA report ? and if u have actully read the report there was nothing that would have stood up in court with White especially seeing it was outside the 8 year window. Whitey was made a scap goat in the media hysteria, GE u have lost me !
Justin Curran
Roar Rookie
I can understand why White was sacked but for me the problem is as you stated Tim, 'Here’s hoping his example won’t encourage others in his situation to stay quiet. The threat of career-ending banishment is a strong incentive not to stir the pot.' Of course it will encourage others to stay quiet. Unless there is some sort of immunity for these guys, the truth will continue to be suppressed.
sittingbison
Guest
the Sky performance over the past two weeks is a PR excercise. It's damage limitation because of Leinders, and various statements including wiggo that are red rags to a bull for the bone idle lazy bloggers, and Skys oft touted zero tolerance policy which they did not follow. The problem with Sky and OGE in keeping schtumm is that LanceGate has finally confronted and opened the general public rather than cycling afficionados. The general public (and thus business, government and federations) will no longer accept doping in any form certainly not a whiff of "coverup". So Teams are between a rock and a hard place. This now also applies to guys like Stephens and Davis who were caught up in Festina and Peurto the two largest doping affairs in history until now. They are tainted. What to do with them. And there are hundreds of riders, mechanics, soigneurs etc that are exactly the same boat, they are being outed daily by the bone idle lazy bloggers. And many who are not outed, but could be at a moments notice. As you say they are unemployable if they admit to doping in this environment but they will be found out and named, nobody is safe given the long memory of the internet. Like the downfall of Armstrong it has come about extraordinarily swiftly and the level of animosity has taken them all by surprise. Thats why there has to be Truth and Reconciliation process. And thats why it has to be stigma free, sanction free. There is no penalty if they fess up. But they only get this one chance to do it. BTW my thoughts on Riis are mixed. He fessed up to doping as a rider after the SOL. Not to encouraging riders to dope certainly not team based doping program. Yet he has been named by Hamilton and others as sending them to Fuentes. Frank Schleck paid 8000 euros to Fuentes (for gynecological advice?), and several of his top riders tested positive including Basso and TH. But Brad McGee says his time at Saxo has been dope free. He really needs to come completely clean similar to Vaughters.
Tim Renowden
Expert
Ever vigilant, Sittingbison. You're spot on that there are dozens of "dodgy doctors" and ex-dopers currently employed by pro teams, mostly without repercussions. The issue is that there really isn't a way of identifying whether they've "come clean" or are still up to no good. And if you were in their situation you wouldn't exactly be putting your hand up for career suicide and possible criminal prosecution, would you? Having remorse is one thing, but making yourself unemployable by making it public is a Big Deal. Some of the managers you've named have confessed - Riis in particular. Others have been unrepentant in public, at least. It's possible that some teams have chosen to deal with employees' pasts internally without taking the Sky/OGE public zero-tolerance approach. I've read some well-argued points of view that zero-tolerance is more about PR than actual change. Unfortunately it's difficult to know - I suppose this goes directly to the heart of calls for greater transparency but I can understand the desire not to "out" employees if team management is convinced they are no longer engaged in doping.
sittingbison
Guest
Tim, the problem for White is he never confessed and has never displayed the slightest remorse. He has not detailed his actions or named names. USADAs prosecution of Armstrong has been n the agenda since what, June? The charge letter clearly indicated over 10 team mates had testified, at which time White would have known his goose was cooked. He only came clean after newspapers named him after the Evidence was released. Now the greater problem is how to deal with dopers remaining in cycling after their cycling career. Sky has done the exact opposite of what is required, because Brailsford has a major PR fiasco on his hands starting with Geert Leinders. Again this only eventuated because of pesky questions being asked by bone idle lazy bloggers about "clean" Sky hiring a well known doping doctor that was contrary to their agenda. They are increasing omerta by demanding the team sign a declaration or be sacked. Garmin however demand the dopers are repentant BEFORE they are hired, and they have that one chance. But what about managers like Riis? Vino? Ekimov? Andersen? What about the dodgy doctors at half a dozen teams including BMC and Quickstep? Even OGRE has its very own dodgy doctor in Manuel Rodriguez Alonso who has worked at ONCE, Mapei and QuickStep, with Sinkewitz saying Rodriguez doped him. He has also worked for Real Madrid. Cycling needs a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Why should guys like White and Julich take the fall for two decades of peloton wide doping? Many of who are still involved and completely unrepentant? Get it all out in the open, no penalties, the past is the past. From that moment on though, zero tolerance and life ban from every aspect of cycling. Its the price that must be paid. Same as giving a reduced sentence for co-operating. It stinks but so be it. Cycling MUST expose its rotten heart. Get it all out in the open. The only way to do that is draw a line in the sand and start again from scratch. So fess up now or be damned for life.
Bobo
Guest
Count me in as one of the scoffers. White was suspended in 1998, so it makes no sense to suddenly decide to sack him for having doped. And Stepehens was an integral member of Festina in the same year. We know who was clean on that team, and his name was Christophe Bassons. Either you sack them for doping as riders (why did you hire them in the first place?) or you don't. Instead, it seems White has been sacked for getting himself in the paper.
Tim Renowden
Expert
Actually it seems that Orica can create its own brand damage without the need for a cycling team: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-02/orica-fined-430k-over-gladstone-cyanide-release/4348808
Tim Renowden
Expert
A fair question. I suspect the mumbled answer would be something like Stephens has never admitted to knowingly doping (AFAIK he still claims to have believed he was receiving vitamin injections - make up your own mind) so he's not on the hook to the same extent. Probably also because his past indiscretions emerged a long time ago and aren't in the news at the moment. I suspect there'll be a lot of people who scoff at these explanations.
midfield general
Guest
Why wasn't Neil Stephens put under the same scrutiny as White?