Michael Rogers is highly respected by will get no sympathy from Cycling Australia

MICHAEL Rogers is one of the most decorated cyclists Australia has ever produced but none of that was cutting much ice at CA.

Michael Rogers in action for Australia at the London Olympics. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

MICHAEL Rogers is one of the most decorated, hardest-working road cyclists Australia has produced - and universally regarded as good bloke, too - but none of that was cutting much ice at Cycling Australia's new offices in Melbourne on Thursday.

His positive test to the banned drug clenbuterol is the fourth doping embarrassment in little over a year and with the "under new management" sign still figuratively hanging over the door, both the mood and the message were clear even though his case is still "provisional."

"We're sick of it, so don't expect any sympathy here".

"While we respect Michael Rogers's right to defend himself, we will support the maximum sanctions in the event he is found guilty of doping," chief executive Adrian Anderson said.

"For too long this great sport has been let down by drug cheats and CA supports every measure to protect the integrity of cycling and to prosecute offences.

"While we don't know all the circumstances of Rogers's case, we do know people doping have caused a lot of damage."

If you think you've heard that before, you're right - it's all too familiar and depressing.

Michael Rogers competes at the 2012 Cycling Australia Road Championships. (Photo by Mark Dadswell/Getty Images)

You just haven't heard it from Anderson, the former AFL heavy lifter who was recruited by the Australian Sports Commission to join the sport in tandem with new chairman Gerry Ryan just a month ago. This is their baptism of fire.

The high-profile pair had a number of governance issues to address, but the dark shadow of doping was always liable to cause them grief - they just didn't expect it to be their Christmas present.

Since last October, three former riders have confessed to doping, admittedly all in the distant past.

They were Matt White, who was and is now again the head coach of Ryan's Orica-GreenEDGE team, Stephen Hodge, who was a respected member of the CA board when he fell on his sword, and one of the sport's great champions, Stuart O'Grady, who was GreenEDGE's inaugural team captain.

With so much of that roll-call of shame so close to home, the drugs issue is particularly sensitive for Ryan, who has single-handedly done more for the sport than anyone in the past 20 years - and is determined not to let the cheats defile his generous work.

That's why Anderson was happy to wave the big stick yesterday, even though through a strange quirk in the rules CA will have no say in Rogers' eventual fate because he is registered in Switzerland, where he lives.

Rogers rides for the Danish Saxo-Tinkoff team, which is owned by Bjarne Riis, who has admitted he was a doper when he won the Tour de France in 1996, and whose star rider is Spaniard Alberto Contador, who has been stripped of one of his three victories for also testing positive to clenbuterol.

Contador, possibly the best rider in the world at the time, protested that he was the victim of contaminated meat, but because of the strict liability rules of international doping codes it didn't save him.

Rogers will rely on the same defence, having raced in China, where athletes are told to steer clear of the meat, just before he tested positive at the Japan Cup in October.

It is unlikely to save him, either, even though it seems absurd that anyone would take what is an old-school, easily detectable substance to win a race of very little importance.

Whether he did or didn't, perception is everything and this is another reason for the world to go on believing cyclists are incorrigible cheats.

That's a tragedy because it is generally agreed within the ranks that since the Lance Armstrong watershed - in fact, well before that - young cyclists have got the message loud and clear and the sport is now far, far cleaner than ever before.