Right now, the Australian road cycling team is at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra.

We're preparing for the Road World Cycling Championships in Geelong: our first (and probably only) time to ever compete on home soil, in front of family, friends, sponsors and coaches.

The women's team consists of eight motivated, hard working riders who have made plenty of sacrifices and endured our own personal stories just to get here. Similarly, the 18 men racing in either the under-23 or elite category (before 1996, men raced as amateur or professional), are like us and have had this race in their minds all season.

The capabilities and expectations of all three teams are very high - we are racing for medals!

But guess what? Floyd Landis is coming to town!

This visit and his proposed involvement in the New Pathways for Professional Cycling conference organised by Martin Hardie & Deakin University has become controversial to say the least.

Despite the conference's broad list of invitees, and their desire for open discussion around 'building sustainable basis for cycling in the future,' it's still been all about Floyd. Those allegations, and THAT story.

Cycling media, ex-riders, local journalists and race organisers have weighed in to the debate about his involvement and have 'removed their support' from his participation (I guess the race director won't provide the sandwiches at little lunch..)

After Floyd effectively hijacked the media at the Tour of California, Melbourne 2010 RWC organisers are understandably determined to not have a repeat of that behaviour. He hogged limelight from riders and the race itself as he made allegations about doping within the most successful Tour de France team and defamed the most high profile rider in the galaxy, Lance Armstrong.

But this time, Floyd has released an extensive statement about his motivation for being involved in the conference (It's nearly as long as Rob Oakeshott's statements regarding his desire/reluctance to become Speaker of the House, but involves many more touchy-feely words).

He states he will not be discussing current allegations surrounding Armstrong, US Postal Cycling team or the systematic doping that allegedly occurred. It has nothing to do with the Federal whistle-blower suit he has filed that could allow for a 30 per cent taking of any funds recovered by the US government.

Floyd wants to help us. He can give us insight into the pressures that an elite male cyclist can be under to dope or take performance-enhancing drugs. He feels that team managers, doctors, soigneurs and directors could assist in this process to support the riders in the difficult decisions they make. He wants to atone for past sins, purge and clear his conscience.

Oh, and did I mention he wants to help everyone?

As a medical professional, I think open discussion is warranted. We need to make cycling safer, cleaner and for cheats to know that they will be caught. Cycling has long been associated with doping, but of course, the more you test athletes, the more they test positive.

Thank goodness there are far fewer cheats in other sports! Nothing to do with the three-strike rule in AFL, and rare positives in US baseball, despite speculation of rampant recreational drug use. Even the multi-billion dollar industry of soccer in the UK and Europe doesn't require players to notify anti-doping authorities of their whereabouts every day. That would be a violation of their civil rights, surely...

But you know what, Floyd? You know you're a hot media magnet right now. You know everyone loves scandal, high profile athletes with stories to tell and sensational headlines. So if you really loved the sport of cycling and wanted to make it cleaner, more transparent and less life-wrecking as you have stated it has been for you, then maybe, you could think of us.

You could participate in other forms of cycling conferences, scientific forums around the globe and provide information to the UCI on their biological passport system, on how to improve anti-doping measures. You could support young riders coming through by coaching them for free, like so many of our coaches do.

This is the World Cycling Championships. It might the first time that most Australian audiences have seen women professional cyclists display the same aggression, desperation, team tactics and ultimate dominance of one rider to be crowned 2010 World Champion.

It aint about you, Floyd.

(The riders to represent Australia at the 2010 UCI Road World Championships in Melbourne and Geelong, from 29 September to 3 October, can be found here.)