LES ESSARTS, France — He’s a 30-something American, a retired former rider and crowned with success at the Tour de France.
And Jonathan Vaughters is also a leading anti-doping crusader in cycling.
Sunday afternoon, Garmin-Cervelo riders hoisted Vaughters, their manager, in the air in glory after the nine-man squad won the Tour’s team time trial in Stage 2, a flat 14.3 miles in and around Les Essarts in western France.
Competing in its fourth Tour, Boulder-based Garmin-Cervelo was popping the champagne after its first-ever stage win in cycling’s greatest race.
For Vaughters, the victory was especially sweet because Thor Hushovd of Norway — a Garmin-Cervelo rider and former teammate years ago — took the yellow jersey off Philippe Gilbert, a Belgian who won the first stage.
“This is an extraordinary dream, I’m very proud, I’m very happy to take the jersey — and that the team won the stage,” said Hushovd, who won the team time trial at the 2001 Tour with Vaughters when both rode for the now-defunct French squad Credit Agricole. “This is a great day, we did a really good team effort, everything worked perfectly.”
The Norwegian leads teammate David Millar in second, with the same time. Cadel Evans of Australia is third, one second back.
Vaughters calls Garmin-Cervelo “an anti-doping team. We are not an anti-ex-doper team,” pointing to Millar, who served a two-year doping ban.
After losing time because of a crash in Saturday’s stage, defending champion Alberto Contador lost even more Sunday as his Saxo Bank team finished 28 seconds behind Garmin-Cervelo. He is 75th overall, 1:42 behind Hushovd.
