On the same day that two riders from a U.S.-registered team stood on the final podium of the 2007 Tour de France, Slipstream Sports manager Jonathan Vaughters announced that he had signed compatriots Christian Vande Velde and Dave Zabriskie, both from team CSC, and Scottish rider David Millar, from Saunier Duval-Prodir.

Team Slipstream, which began in 2004 as TIAA-CREF, will return as a continental professional team in 2008, with hopes of a Tour de France wildcard invitation. Vaughters and team owner Doug Ellis hope to see the squad become a ProTour team in 2009. The team will also race select events in North America, including the Amgen Tour of California, the Tour de Georgia, the Pennsylvania Triple Crown series, the USA Cycling national championships and the Tour of Missouri.

In his Paris hotel room, Vaughters held an informal interview to discuss his team’s plans for next year and beyond. Millar arrived fresh off finishing the Tour on the Champs-Élysées.

“I’m coming to an American team,” Millar told the group of mostly American journalists, who had collectively honored the worst kept secret of the Tour until its finale.

Slipstream made headlines this year by spending close to a half-million dollars on independent blood monitoring of its athletes. Millar, of course, spent two years suspendedfrom the sport after admitting to using EPO and was stripped of his 2003 world time-trial victory. Since returning to cycling at the 2006 Tour de France, Millar has been outspoken critic of cycling’s doping culture. It’s that background, said Vaughters, that makes Millar a perfect fit with the team’s aggressive anti-doping policies.

“When I made the decision to come back to cycling, I knew if I came back I would always be an ex-doper,” Millar said. “But I realized I had an opportunity to talk about it and try and make a difference. There was no one doing what I was doing. I was trying to achieve redemption, but it has gone beyond that. I am enjoying my role and taking strong stance, to be a voice — a constructive voice.”

To make room for the changes, Vaughters is letting 10 riders go from this year’s 22-rider squad.

“I have put team together based on compatible personalities, and people who I trust and bought into the team’s concept,” Vaughters said. “This team is not just a place to get paid well. We are an American team trying to do it a different way. We selected riders who bought into it.”

With the addition of Millar and Zabriskie, as well as returning rider and 2001 world under-23 time-trial champion Danny Pate, Slipstream looks to have a squad that could win a team time trial event in a grand tour but lacks a clear GC contender.

“We do seem to have supplementary talents with David [Millar] and David [Zabriskie],” Vaughters said. “It will be interesting to see how it evolves. Christian [Vande Velde] has never been a true GC rider, but showed at certain stages this year that he may be ready for that type of role. Zabriskie has only recently shown glimpses of being GC rider, and he may have more possibilities of playing around with that.”

Millar joins the team not only as a rider but also as part owner of the Slipstream Sports organization. The Scot said he and Vaughters had been working out details of the program for months, and Millar bought into the concept completely.

“People thought I was nuts three or four months ago, and now JV’s phone is ringing off the hook,” Millar said. “It’s needed, what we are going to be doing. It’s basically a new vision, a new start. JV and I have spoken with [Tour de France organizers] ASO and UCI, and also WADA. We’re trying to get everybody involved. With the way things are going, we might have an influence on which way the tide turns.”

The Slipstream team has become known as much for its argyle team kits as for its internal blood-level monitoring. For 2008 Vaughters has suggested to the UCI the possibility of pro cycling teams employing the use of a compliance officer — an independent-observer position granted unlimited access to a team and its riders, similar to positions deemed necessary on the New York Stock Exchange in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom accounting scandals.

“It seems such a huge invasion of privacy, but riding the Tour de France, being a hero to millions of kids is a privilege,” Vaughters said. “It’s a privilege to be a pro cyclist — it isn’t a right.”

The majority of the team will take up residence in Gerona, Spain, where Vaughters said riders would regularly train together and meet with team mechanics, physiotherapists and management.

“It will be like a perpetual training camp,” Vaughters said. “Think of the amount of energy Michael Rasmussen spent evading his own Rabobank team, essentially hiding from his own people. It would seem to be constructive not to have to do that.”

Vaughters also said Slipstream was on the verge of signing a former Paris-Roubaix winner, but was not yet able to name the rider. Active Paris-Roubaix winners include Stuart O'Grady (2007), Fabian Cancellara (2006), Tom Boonen (2005), Magnus Bäckstedt (2004), Peter Van Petegem (2003), and Frederic Guesdon (1997). With both O’Grady and Cancellara committed to Team CSC in 2008, and Boonen staying with Quick Step-Innergetic, the possibilities can only include Bäckstedt, Van Petegem and Guesdon.

Asked about competing against a field that may or may not share its dope-free philosophy, Vaughters said winning wasn’t as important as being known as a team that races honestly. And winning is still an option, Vaughters said, pointing to the success of Team CSC, which began working closely with Dr. Rasmus Damsgaard this year to monitor the blood values of its riders.

“What is a huge result? Was Fabian Cancellara wearing the yellow jersey for a week and winning two stages a huge result? It’s very plausible that was done clean, and I think that’s a pretty darn good result,” Vaughters said. “Yes we will win, but isn’t it really more important to be cool?”

As a professional continental team, Slipstream won’t be guaranteed entry into ProTour events — assuming there is aUCI ProTour next year. But both Vaughters and Millar said they felt confident both in the caliber of the team and their relationship with race organizers such as ASO.

“I feel pretty sure with myself and JV,” Millar said. “My image is good in France, and I think we’ll get the invitations to races we want to do in Europe. It’s an ironic twist of fate that we will be one of most attractive teams in cycling. Circumstances being what they are, we will probably be turning down invitations. We had two of the top GC riders in worlds actively seeking a spot on our team, but we kept it at what it was. We are trying to create a team as opposed to just buying one.”

And yes, the team will return in its argyle kits in 2008 — a design for which Vaughters takes full responsibility.

“My sister has a great saying about the argyle kits,” Millar said. “‘Fantastic concept, horrific realization.’ But part of thing of the team is having a different look. We want the team to be a little edgy. Something that fans can attach themselves to. When they are at the start of a race, we want them to think, ‘I want go near that bus,’”

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For exclusive video of Millar’s announcement in Paris with JonathanVaughters, see VeloNews.com/VNTV