USA Cycling CEO Derek Bouchard-Hall said the two new committees the organization announced Monday will bring outside knowledge to the table to address doping and bike-racing accidents.

Bouchard-Hall said he hopes the committees, packed with experts and racers, will make progress on difficult topics.

“It’s about harnessing expertise and independent thinking to tackle hard but important problems,” Bouchard-Hall wrote in an email to Clipped In. “We feel it is essential USA Cycling demonstrates leadership in these areas, and we believe we will only do so if we apply adequate brain power to the task.”

Anti-Doping Committee tasks

Members of the new Anti-Doping Committee will determine how it can “best reduce banned doping practices within amateur and professional cycling” in United States, USA Cycling announced.

Its focus will be to figure out the optimal level of testing to create a cost-effective and credible deterrent, recommend what other actions USA Cycling can take to reduce doping and evaluate the effectiveness of USA Cycling’s anti-doping efforts over time.

Gathering safety data

The Safety Committee will gather and evaluate existing data on bike-racing accidents and to establish a set of recommendations for USA Cycling based on identified risk factors.

“We knew there was expertise and knowledge outside our organization which could help us make better decisions, and we wanted to leverage that expertise and knowledge – particularly because we often receive offers for assistance but previously had no means to harness it,” Bouchard-Hall said.

‘Honest with ourselves’

He also said USA Cycling wanted to get independent advice from a group that could critique the organization’s actions.

“Taking action is only the beginning,” Bouchard-Hall said. “We must then evaluate the effectiveness of those actions and associated consequences and adjust our approach. An advisory committee will help us be honest with ourselves.”

USA Cycling added a surcharge this year to various amateur bike racing categories to pay for doping control administered by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. Suspicions have surfaced about a Masters doping epidemic in the United States and some riders have already been caught.

Members of the committees were chosen from a combined pool of more than 200 applicants and are volunteers, according to a USA Cycling press release.

Anti-Doping Committee members:

• Dr. Paul Dimeo – Associate Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences and Sport at the University of Stirling leading international anti-doping researcher
• Dr. John Gleaves – Associate Professor of Kinesiology at California State University-Fullerton, doping research expert with a focus on ethics and cycling
• Dr. Brendon Hale – Specialist in human performance and neuroscience, consultant to the Royal Health Awareness Society, race director for North Start Bicycle Festival
• Dr. April Henning  – Post-Doctoral Fellow in behavioral sciences, sociologist with a focus on doping’s Impact on amateur athletes
• Oliveir de Hon –Scientific Affairs Manager for the National Anti-Doping Organization of the Netherlands
• Uli Fluhme – Wall Street attorney, anti-doping activist, New York Grand Fondo Co-Founder
• Dr. Kristen Keim – Clinical and Sport Psychologist, member of USOC Sport Psychology and Mental Training registry, specialist in psychology of cheating and doping
• Jon Whiteman – USA Cycling Risk Protection Manager

Safety Committee members:

• Mark Alberg – Medicine of Cycling* member, athletic trainer and coordinator for Tour of America’s Dairyland
• Dr. Grant Baldwin – PhD specializing in injury prevention at the Centers for Disease Control
• Dr. Keith Borg – MD in emergency medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina, Race Director for multiple UCI events, including 2015 UCI Road World Championships
• Dr. Steve Broglio – Medicine of Cycling* member, PhD and ATC specializing in concussion studies at the University of Michigan
• Dr. Mark Greve – Medicine of Cycling* member, MD in emergency medicine
• Chuck Hodge – USA Cycling Technical Director
• Ted King – Former professional cyclist, member of the Association of North American Professional Road Cyclists
• Malcolm McCollam – Attorney, specialist in event management, Race Director for Tulsa Tough
• Ruth Shapiro – Attorney specializing in risk management and loss prevention
• Sallie Urffer – Race official, data analyst in the medical field
• Laura van Gilder – Former professional and current Cat. 1 cyclist with 25 years of racing experience