Cycling coach Matt White cleared to resume career with Orica-GreenEDGE team after independent review A photo taken in January 2012 shows then-director of Orica-GreenEdge Matt White (right) with team rider Stuart O'Grady before the start of the Down Under Classic in Adelaide. CYCLING coach Matt White has been cleared to resume his career with Orica-GreenEDGE after an independent review of the Australian-owned team. Independent anti-doping expert Nicki Vance recommends White, who lost two high-powered jobs after admitting to doping while on teams with Lance Armstrong, be reinstated. Vance also said Orica-GreenEDGE should not take any action against White's fellow sport director Neil Stephens, who was involved in the infamous 1998 Festina scandal. Vance's report was commissioned in the wake of the Armstrong doping controversy, which resulted in the downfall of the American cycling star. White was implicated in the Armstrong case and he then confessed to doping during his professional racing career. That cost him a part-time role at Cycling Australia and his full-time job as an Orica-GreenEDGE team director. News Limited earlier this month revealed White had served a six-month ban from the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority. Stephens was a rider on the Festina team exposed for rampant abuse of systematic doping practices during the 1998 Tour de France. He has always maintained he thought he was taking legal substances. "Consistent with the advised general approach to past doping offences/admissions and the conditions already outlined, it is recommended that Matt White have his position ... reinstated once any ASADA-imposed sanction is completed," Vance said. In accordance with the general recommendations for past doping offences, it is recommended that no sanction or workplace penalty be imposed on Neil Stephens. Vance said the sport was making substantial progress in anti-doping, but needed to stay vigilant. She said all Orica-GreenEDGE riders and staff were "extremely cooperative" with her investigation. "Despite its poor reputation, the sport of cycling has changed significantly in the last five or six years," she said. The UCI (cycling's governing body) is now implementing the newer anti-doping strategies and conducting a more progressive anti-doping program and is certainly one of the leading international federations in this regard. However, the public perception of cycling at this point in time is very poor due to the significant amount of publicity surrounding the Lance Armstrong case and subsequent admissions by cyclists. Vance will meet Orica-GreenEDGE team management next week to discuss the report.