Tracey Gaudry endorses new leadership for Cycling Australia Leadership: Cycling chief Tracey Gaudry has endorsed Cycling Australia's move. Photo: Pat Scala Australia's pre-eminent cycling chief says the sport can only regain credibility domestically and globally through unflinchingly honest reflection and administration. Tracey Gaudry, the pioneering vice-president of cycling's international governing body and president of the Oceania confederation, described 2013 as "turbulent, tumultuous and frankly exhausting" as the sport lurched from crisis to crisis. In applauding the installation of fresh leadership domestically, Gaudry acknowledged the "potential conflict" of new Cycling Australia president Gerry Ryan, the businessman owner of World Tour team Orica-GreenEDGE who has donated millions to sport. While praising Ryan's rich personal and professional investment in cycling over decades, she said the appointment of comparative outsider Adrian Anderson as Cycling Australia's interim CEO was healthy for the organisation, even if the former AFL boss only remains in the post short-term. Ryan and Anderson replaced Klaus Mueller and Graham Fredericks seven weeks ago. CA has said it plans to announce a permanent CEO in February. Noting it was still early days for the financially challenged CA under the new regime, Gaudry said "change was needed in terms of the leadership and the structure of the organisation." The people who are going to be guiding the strategy of the sport ... need to have both a good understanding of the sport - sport in general at global and local level - and business and commercial structures. Gerry carries all of those qualities. He is also the owner of a World Tour team," Gaudry said. Most people in senior administrative roles have conflicts every day that they manage, and every day being aware of those conflicts is vitally important. In striving to have the right person in the role at the right time, the [Australian] Sports Commission in its endorsement of Gerry, and the board of Cycling Australia in its endorsement of Gerry, recognises that his strengths and capabilities as an individual - and his ability to manage potential conflict - outweigh the real or perceived issue. Gerry has invested, without the expectation of return, for the betterment of the sport and for his love of the sport. So Gerry in his actions will ensure that everything he does is for the betterment of the sport. Personal interests aside. Gaudry said she was "well aware" of Anderson's capabilities as "a very senior operator in sports administration" through past professional dealings. She said his "unemotional" and "no-baggage perspective" should benefit CA. If we want to change the game, sometimes we've got to get away from group-think, and we need to bring in outside perspectives. What I hope is that in the three-to-four-month period that Adrian is in the interim CEO position is that the mandate for that interim position is filled. That is: to address the priority issues that Cycling Australia is facing, and to work with Gerry as the new chairman and the board and senior management of Cycling Australia to establish remedial action for the issues that it's currently facing. And to establish a strategy and structure for the future. What Cycling Australia and the system need to do to maximise Adrian's impact is ensure that he builds enough knowledge about cycling to be able to do that job well. With a series of road cycling events beginning with the Bay Classic in Geelong this week, Gaudry listed three top priorities: ■ Continuing the fight against doping and restoring the sport's credibility. ■ Improving CA's financial and commercial position. ■ Ensuring that the government-funded organisation optimises the connection between amateur and elite cycling. Cycling Australia would do very, very well to embrace the holistic element of cycling as a way of life. More broadly, Gaudry said the Union Cycliste Internationale's imminent announcement of an independent commission to fully examine a drug-riddled and corrupt history was critical. "Cycling's credibility moving forward will be based on how it addresses the problems of the past so that they do not taint the future," she said. It is a priority, in terms of my role in the administration, that we address the issues of the past. Particularly the doping issues. They stem from broader structural and governance issues.