Questions: author Nicki Vance. Credit:Viki Yemettas Hence, one of Vance's recommendations was that the team release a public statement on their position on Stephens who, she said in her report, has made himself available to ASADA for interview if needed. That statement is still to come. With concerns remaining, the timing of O'Grady's confession on the Wednesday after the Tour's July 21 finish to using the drug EPO for two weeks before the 1998 Tour was terrible. It also cast doubt over the Vance report, showing O'Grady did not confess to her in his interview. ''In hindsight, that would have been the more appropriate thing to do,'' Orica-GreenEDGE general manager Shayne Bannan told Fairfax Media when asked if he wished O'Grady had confessed to Vance. Bannan says he knew nothing of O'Grady's secret until before the Wednesday after the Tour. Asked if he had heard rumours during the Tour that O'Grady might be named in the French senate inquiry into doping, as he was when its findings were released that Wednesday, Bannan said: ''Stuart gave me a brief telephone call … on the Wednesday morning to let me know he would be named and that there would be a statement admitting what he did back then, back in 1998. I didn't know anything. There were a lot of rumours … but it was not confirmed to me until Stuart gave me a call on Wednesday.''

Hindsight: General manager Shayne Bannan. Credit:AP Bannan still defended the team news release about 39-year-old O'Grady's snap retirement two days earlier despite having recently re-signed. ''We were talking to Stuey before the Tour about the Tour in 2014 being his last race. But looking at his performance level, while he was still fantastic … with age and so on, he is not the Stuart O'Grady he was five, six or 10 years ago. I took it on face value that he wanted to finish on a high, that he found the Tour quite punishing in terms of the physical demands and felt that it was time.'' Bannan said when he discovered the real reason two days later, he rode a roller-coaster of emotion. ''There is anger, there is disappointment and then there is a real feeling for him and his family and what they are going through,'' Bannan said, adding that while he has kept in contact with O'Grady to ensure ''him and his family are OK'', there has not been ''discussion'' about him having a future in the team. Spared: Sports director Neil Stephens. Credit:AP For Orica-GreenEDGE, there is enough to do in implementing the rest of the Vance recommendations.

The team will meet Vance for a review in January but Bannan said they would address her recommendation about Stephens ''towards the end of the year''. He said the team's public statement on his case ''will be something that comes from the team. Then we would make Neil available for comment also.'' Bannan said Orica-GreenEDGE have also added in rider and staff contracts a clause asking if they have a doping history, or have had any links to doping; and that they have streamlined their policy on supplement use to meet those of the Australian Institute of Sport and Cycling Australia. In her report, Vance pointed to the potential problem of mixed messages being delivered to riders after their three doctors had different views on the issue of supplement use. Next year the team will also take on a full-time nutritionist. According to Vance in her report, Peter Barnes, who is the team's medical and athlete welfare director: ''Does not generally agree with the need to use the wide-ranging supplements currently being used by Orica-GreenEDGE and feels it leads to a philosophy of taking things to assist performance.'' Vance said Manuel Rodriguez, formerly of the ONCE, Mapei and QuickStep teams, and ''the key proponent of supplement use'', told her the Australian team assesses: ''What supplements are needed and which ones are OK/safe to use … gives riders supplements to deter them from seeking to use their own.'' Meanwhile, Serge Niamke, said Vance, in her report, ''falls in the middle, but leans more towards'' Barnes. She said Dr Niamke ''often listens to what the riders are talking about so he can try and prevent any possible misuse of supplements … and [will] then have a discussion with them if anything is of concern''.

Twitter: @rupertguinness