Australia's White named in Armstrong probe

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Australian former Olympian Matt White has been named in the widening US Anti-Doping Agency investigation into Lance Armstrong as a drug user, a report said on Saturday.

White, who rode on the Armstrong-led US Postal Services team from 2001 to 2003, is alleged to have used drugs.

White was named in USADA's findings from evidence submitted by former teammate Floyd Landis, who has been central to the inquiry, The Sydney Morning Herald said.

White, 38, is now the head sports director of the new Australian World Tour Orica-GreenEDGE cycling team.

The Orica-GreenEDGE team told AFP it fully supported White and trusted his integrity as a sports director of its team.

White is also Cycling Australia's professional coordinator and a national selector and was the men's Australian road team sports director at this year's London Olympics.

In the USADA report, White was named by disgraced American Landis -- stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title for doping -- for taking the blood booster EPO and testosterone, the newspaper said.

"His name is in an 'exhibit' to Landis's affidavit that adjoins its 202-page 'reasoned decision' for giving a life ban to Armstrong and stripping him of all his results since August 1998," the newspaper said.
Landis said that while training with the USPS team he spent a lot of time with White and Canadian Michael Barry.

Barry has admitted to doping and, while now retired, was banned by USADA on Wednesday for six months and stripped of all his results between May 13, 2003 and July 31, 2006.

"While training for that Vuelta (the 2003 Vuelta a Espana), I spent a good deal of time training with Matthew White and Michael Barry and shared the testosterone and EPO that we had and discussed the use thereof while training," part of Landis's 14-paged evidence read.

The Orica-GreenEDGE team said it was aware that White had been linked to some evidence in USADA's document.

"We fully support Matthew White and trust his integrity as a sports director with us," the team's Communications Director Brian Nygaard told AFP in a statement Saturday.

"We have become aware of the fact that he has been linked to some of the evidence in the report about the US Postal Team and we are in contact with Matt to seek full clarity as to what this is about.
"We will comment once we have been able to talk to both Matt White and the relevant Australian authorities."

Cycling Australia president Klaus Mueller told the Herald that the organisation hoped to contact White as soon as possible.

Armstrong, who denies taking banned substances, has been accused by USADA of being at the heart of "the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme" ever seen in sport.