AS CYCLING Australia admonished Chloe Hosking for calling the president of the sport's international governing body ''a dick'', the leading female rider was preparing a formal apology but maintaining her rage over the federation's poor support of women.

Called to explain herself, and pre-empting recriminations from the Union Cycliste Internationale after insulting its most powerful administrator, Pat McQuaid, Hosking said she was sorry for how she ''phrased her comments. I wasn't that eloquent''.

Chloe Hosking. Credit:Joe Armao

The Commonwealth Games bronze medallist branded McQuaid ''a dick'' due to his view that female professionals do not deserve a minimum salary, which he expressed at the world road championships last year.

In the professional women's peloton, an estimated 50 per cent of riders still don't receive salaries from their teams, in stark contrast to the lucrative men's circuit where the top earners can reap €2 million to €3 million ($A2.5 million to $3.8 million) a year from contracts and the top-20 professionals would earn upward of €1 million.