CHATEAUROUX, France—Team Garmin-Chipotle manager, a former lieutenant of seven-times Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, said the tide was turning against doping in cycling.
The American, who entered three Tours as a rider with the US Postal and Credit Agricole teams, said there were signs that there were fewer cheats in the sport.
"There is a lot of evidence," Vaughters told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.
"For instance when the breakaway was off (in the third stage). One team got in front to catch it but could not quite do it, then another could not quite do it.
"Just one team cannot come to the front and ride 60 kph an hour for two hours and catch a breakaway. That does not happen any more," the 35-year-old Vaughters added.
"You need more cooperation between three or four teams and a lot of riders into the rotation to get them back. That's a positive sign."
Vaughters, who won the Mont Ventoux stage of the Dauphine Libere in 1999 and 2000, won a Tour de France stage in 2001, a team time trial while riding with Chris Boardman for the Credit Agricole team.
An excellent climber, he had bad luck on the Tour de France, never finishing the race in three attempts between 1999 and 2001.
Vaughters called it quits in 2003 at just 30 and launched Slipstream team, now Garmin-Chipotle, in 2005 as a development team for young American riders with $50,000 of his own money, and with a strong anti-doping stance.
Exhausting Time
"I was just tired. There were always rumours (of doping), that was absolutely exhausting. I was always asking myself 'should I dope or should I not dope ?," he said.
"It's absolutely of having always to deal with it. I heard this guy is doing this and this guy is going to test positive and this guy's going to get caught.
"In the end of the day it played a role although there were other signs," added Vaughters, who also cited personal reasons when he quit.
Now the happy manager of Garmin-Chipotle, Vaughters said the daily behaviour of the riders had dramatically changed.
"With this team (doping) is not an issue anymore. In cycling there is so much talking, rumours and it's really negative," he said.
"When I go inside our bus and talk to the guys they're talking about race tactics, wives, kids, girlfriends or whatever it's not just negative.
"They just don't talk about it, it's a non topic.
"It's funny because with the press doping is the main topic. But 10 years ago in the press, doping was not a very big topic at all but it was a big topic in there," he said, pointing to a team bus.
"Now it's a big topic for you guys and they (the riders) don't even talk about it but it's really better this way."
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