Garrett Lai

This year’s Tour started out as anybody’s race. And while Australian Cadel Evans was pegged as a pre-race favorite, nobody tapped American Christian Vande Velde and his Garmin-Chipotle team to be a contender. Yet here we are, past the halfway mark, and an American sits just 38 seconds back — within striking distance of the leader’s yellow jersey. And he’s riding for an American team. How did this happen? And can he tough it out to the end?

Vande Velde is no cycling newcomer — he was on the U.S. National team 1995-1999, went to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics as an alternate and raced for the Olympic rings in 2000 in Sydney on the team pursuit squad. And he did time, twice, as part of Lance Armstrong’s Tour-crushing race squad. He’s been a solid performer who’s really come into his own this year, briefly taking the leader’s pink jersey at the Tour of Italy.

And Garmin-Chipotle isn’t news, but this year’s spate of strong successes is. Founder and retired pro Jonathan Vaughters kick-started the team in 2004 with $50,000 of his own cash, with an eye toward earning an eventual Tour berth.

But what set this team apart from the get-go was a seriously strong commitment to racing clean. In the absence of strong anti-doping controls on the part of race organizers, what started as team Slipstream enacted the strictest testing protocol in cycling. While other teams shroud their riders’ medical histories in secrecy, Garmin-Chipotle makes theirs so transparent the team Web site features a prominent link that lets you request an individual rider’s test results (provided you’re an accredited member of the press).

It’s been a bold move, and while the team has held the moral high ground in the doping wars it’s been tough to earn respect with cycling’s tradition-bound old guard. That’s all changed with Vande Velde’s performance of the past two weeks. But can he hold on?

Maybe.

Who are these guys?
Vande Velde enjoys the advantage of surprise. Race strategy over a three-week grand tour is extremely complicated. In the Lance era, strategy was simple — it all revolved around trying to nullify Armstrong. Double the number of contenders, and race strategy gets exponentially more difficult — you have to anticipate more potential outcomes and come up with contingencies.

This year’s Tour might be the most wide-open race in the modern era. It’s a strange field, one that’s been stripped of past Tour champions and contains only a few former contenders (defending champion Alberto Contador didn’t start; nor did American Levi Leipheimer, who finished third last year).

And in the absence of a dominating presence like Lance, or a team with the depth and horsepower of his former Discovery Channel stablemates, most pre-race coverage pegged current front-runner Cadel Evans, climbing star Alejandro Valverde or Tour of Spain winner Denis Menchov.

The longer list included Spanish rider Carlos Sastre and his powerful CSC team. Nobody counted Vande Velde in, or his Garmin-Chipotle teammates. So nobody’s pre-race strategy included these guys. They are the unanticipated team, team X Factor.

And Garmin-Chipotle is a team with something to prove. Being written off as a joke will do that, and these guys are serious, a wildcard Tour entrant that’s gunning for respect. At this year’s Giro d’Italia, the team absolutely destroyed themselves in the team time trial, with a blistering pace so daunting they shed four of their own riders along the way (including overall contender David Millar) to snatch first place on the stage and, briefly, put Vande Velde in the leader’s pink jersey.

They know how to focus. And they’re willing to sacrifice, with strong riders that include former yellow jersey holder David Zabriskie, David Millar, and Magnus Backstedt — all Tour stage winners. With Jonathan Vaughters calling the shots.

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