Cycling Australia has made the announcement that Bard McGee, the Olympic gold medallist and three time winner of the grand tour stage will be assuming the role of directeur sportif being in charge of the road program of the elite men. McGee will get help from Brian Stephens, the present selector alongside him. Stephens will be accompanying McGee in the capacity of European coordinator. Both McGee and Stephens will be taking up their role immediately and that will include the UCI Road World Championship which is scheduled to take place in September in year and also the Commonwealth Games, 2014 scheduled to be held in Glasgow as well as the Rio Olympic Games in the year 2016.
Graham Fredericks, the CEO of Cycling Australia said that McGee’s impressive career as a pro and also his track record as a coach made him the best choice for the program. Fredericks further said the Stephens is the best choice for assisting McGee as Stephens has extensively worked with several Australian athletes for the past 2 decades and from his European base, he surely will be instrument in the role of mentoring the players.
Australian cyclist Matt White was earlier holding for the position that is now being taken up by McGee but following the Reasoned Decision of United States Anti Doping Agency, White was dismissed and the position had been open since then.
White had taken up the position of the direceur sportif in the year 2011, taking over the reins from Neil Stephens, who resigned so that he could focus on the development of GreenEdge Project. As soon as White was appointed, the appointment decision was put under the scanner due to his dismissal by team Garmin-Cervelo during the Tour Down Under for the breaching the policy of medical referral of the team. He had sent Trent Lowe for ex US Portal team Dr. Luis Garcia del Moral at the Valencia’s sports institute in the year 2009.