Mueller, a barrister, claimed he had resigned because the role was becoming too busy for him to manage.

"It's been an honour to lead Cycling Australia through many highs and lows," Mueller said in a statement.

"In recent times, the position has grown into almost a full-time role, which I can simply no longer manage.

"Given the challenges the sport is currently facing, the timing is right to hand the reigns over to a new leader with a different skill set to enable the sport to realise its enormous commercial potential."

Mueller has presided over a tumultuous period for the sport in Australia.

Cycling there is enjoying a sustained boom in popularity and major results, but the sport's image has been badly tarnished because of repeated doping scandals.

The most damage to the sport has come from the Lance Armstrong case, with the high-profile American stripped of his record seven Tour de France titles and banned from the sport for life.

As a direct result of that scandal, Australian Matt White also admitted to doping during his racing career,

White was handed a retrospective six-month ban and lost his part-time role at Cycling Australia, but is back working as a director at Australian professional team Orica-GreenEDGE.

Shortly after White's confession late last year, Cycling Australian vice-president Stephen Hodge also voluntarily admitted to doping when he raced and stood down from the Board.

Cycling Australia has had to deal with a difficult period after Lance Armstrong's former teammate Matt White admitted that he had doped

Cycling's world governing body the UCI is under massive pressure following the Armstrong scandal.

The announcement of Mueller's resignation came soon after Cookson, the President of British Cycling, had addressed Cycling Australia's Board.

Cookson, is engaged in an increasingly bitter election campaign against UCI President Pat McQuaid.

Mueller will stay on until the end of next month and seemed to indicate that Cycling Australia would continue its backing for Cookson at the UCI election in Florence on September 27.

"I have and will continue to push for change within the UCI to ensure that the tarnished international reputation of the sport is restored," Mueller said.

"I've spent the past eight years lobbying for expanded powers for ASADA (Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority) and I'm particularly proud of the fact that CA's high performance programme has continued to be run ethically and successfully."

Cycling Australia has formed a Nominations Committee to recommend a successor for Mueller.

Cookson, meanwhile tweeted afterwards that he felt the meeting was productive.