What riders and management think
“I think what our team’s doing with the ACE program is the future for all sports,” says Garmin-Chipotle rider David Millar. “This is the first step because the buck doesn’t stop at the athlete. There’s a chain of responsibility and actions that lead to an athlete doping, and more often than not, team management’s fully aware of what’s going on.”

The Scottish cyclist has an interesting perspective; he was busted for EPO use several years ago and lost his 2003 world champion time trial title. He served a two-year suspension that ended in 2006 and is now a leading anti-drug spokesman for the peloton. “Cycling’s really doing everything possible in the fight against doping, and I’m convinced that within five years, we’ll be at the vanguard of anti-doping and an example to all professional sports.”

The idea for a clean team started a few years ago, when Jonathan Vaughters, team director of Garmin-Chipotle and a former pro cyclist, was asked by a corporate marketing professional if it was possible for a team to race clean. Vaughters, team owner Doug Ellis and team physiologist Allen Lim studied the issue for three months. They looked at the sociology of cheating — who cheats, why they cheat, how they could make a cultural change. The three realized that teams had to quit promising sponsors a certain number of wins because that put too much pressure on team managers and riders to use drugs.

“So up front we tell the sponsor that we guarantee we’ll do everything legally to win races, but that doesn’t guarantee wins every day, every month,” says Vaughters. Then you get to the athlete. “Before, he was told that if he didn’t win he didn’t get a contract. You prevent that by making sure that type of pressure is forbidden and instead, the manager can pressure the athlete to do everything perfectly in training — go to bed on time, eat correctly, for example. You make it clear that their job isn’t to win races, but to do everything they can in training to win races.”

The final piece was having the strictest anti-doping policy in sports. “The sponsors want this, the athletes want this — I mean, why are we in this self-destructive arms race?” he asks.

Jonathan Vaughters watches from a car during Stage 4 of the Tour de Georgia.

Vaughters’ team started drug testing in January 2007 at the team’s winter training camp. Last season the two American teams decided to coordinate their efforts and use Los Angeles-based ACE. “We though it would be valuable to standardize a state-of-the-art testing program so our athletes could look across the peloton and say, at least those guys are clean,” says Ellis. “I think that kind of confidence is very valuable.”

Columbia started testing in October 2007, and “it’s not particularly fun for them,” admits team owner Bob Stapleton. “Some were tested by us and two other agencies during the Giro (Tour of Italy) all on the same morning. But my view is, if you’re going to do it, do it right. We’re trying to drive change. Just the fact that we’re doing this level of testing sends a strong message that if you do anything at all, you’ll get caught.” Last year the team terminated the contract of one rider whose tests indicated abnormalities. This year no follow-up testing’s been needed.

But can they win?
While some question whether the playing field is even, both American teams are pleased with this season’s race results. With more than 30 victories, Team Columbia’s men’s team has more wins than any other top-tier pro team, including three stage victories at the Giro and overall victories at the European classic Fleche Wallone and the Tour of Georgia. “We’re so happy and proud this year,” says team leader Hincapie, who’d rather talk about wins than drugs. “We’ve won almost 70 races with the men’s and women’s team combined.”

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The younger, newer Garmin-Chipotle team’s highlights include second (David Millar) and third (Christian Vande Velde) at the Tour of California, second (Trent Lowe) at the Tour of Georgia, and winning the team time trial at the Giro. “I have absolutely no doubt that a non-doping team could do well at this year’s Tour,” says the ever-optimistic Vaughters. “We didn’t win the overall race at the Giro, but winning the team time trial, in my humble opinion, is the most prestigious stage.”

“Win or lose, the experience of competing is supposed to be rewarding,” says Millar. “That’s a sentiment lost in elite sport these days, and it is one we must rediscover.”