"I thought, 'Man, this is destiny.' Talk about landing on your feet after the Lance affair," Steffen says. "The problem was the pay was so low."
In Europe physicians don't occupy the same elite economic status that they do here. And administering the IAAF's global anti-doping programs paid a paltry $50,000 per year, less than half Steffen's income as an emergency room physician.
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So for now, Steffen is left working nights at St. Mary's with hopes of returning to his sideline ensuring the health and fitness of elite international cyclists.
"Our sponsors have a say in whether that happens. Prentice himself has a say in whether that happens. But Lance doesn't have any interest or say in that decision," Team TIAA-Cref's Vaughters says.
While I had him on the line, Vaughters, himself a former top professional cyclist who raced with the U.S. Postal Service team in 1999, reminded me that cycling gets a lot of flak for banned drug use when the problem is at least as acute in sports such as football and baseball. Those sports don't have anything near the rigorous urine and blood analysis that cyclists must endure all year long.
Vaughters said he believes stricter testing has reduced the use of banned substances by cyclists since 1998, when Tour de France police raids revealed systematic doping programs implemented by European teams. In 2000, Vaughters moved from Postal to a French team sponsored by the bank Credit Agricole, which had insisted team directors take an absolutist anti-doping stance. He's brought that philosophy to TIAA-Cref, which he has staffed with young riders unversed in old cycling ways. And he hired Steffen, who is well known for his opposition to doping.
"After the 1998 Tour scandal, the French teams really said, 'Whether the test is positive or not is not the point. We want to be clean, period.' When it came to a team like Credit Agricole, it was just like the doctors were literally checking to make sure you weren't doping," Vaughters said. "It was a refreshing attitude."
I asked him if he meant refreshing when compared with his previous team, U.S. Postal.
"Ah. Uh. Heh, heh," Vaughters said and then paused a moment. "It was refreshing compared with the general attitude of the cycling world that I have seen in my life," he said.
In the world of professional sports, Vaughters' anti-doping attitude has the potential to create controversy. For that reason Vaughters' team, its erstwhile doctor, and the young riders under their charge deserve some loud shouts of "Allez, allez! Andale! Andale! Keep it clean!"
