Cycling Australia has "had a board shake-out" and received a A$2M ($1.81M) lifeline to "keep its Olympic programme on track after battling back from virtual insolvency," according to Ian Ransom of REUTERS. Former Int'l Cricket Council CEO Malcolm Speed will "replace outgoing president Gerry Ryan and lead a new board of bankers and business people" as the "cash-strapped" governing body "completes a governance review and tries to generate more revenue to close the gap on big-spending cycling powers like Britain." Ryan, owner of pro cycling team Orica-Greenedge, "steps down after less than a year in charge but will remain as a director and help the administration appoint a new CEO in coming months." A "long-time investor in the sport, Ryan said CA had also battled a financial crisis, as sponsorship revenue failed to materialise and a venture into events management turned sour." Ryan: "If it was a private business it wouldn't be operating. What we had to do was unfold the events business, it was a joint partnership and we had to move on some of the personnel and scale back." The Australian Sports Commission, the agency "in charge of channelling government funding into national sports," will kick in A$1.5M of the loan, with "the rest to come from state member associations and Mountain Bike Australia." ASC Chair John Wylie said that the interest-bearing loan has "strings attached, however, being subject to completion of the governance review" and the formation of a high-performance "oversight committee" to ensure the money is well-spent (REUTERS, 9/16).