High Road team owner Bob Stapleton chats outside the High Road motor home Thursday at Road Atlanta, the site of Stage 4 of the Tour de Georgia. Photo by Dave Luecking 

When T-Mobile withdrew its name as the title sponsor of the T-Mobile professional cycling team, it enabled team owner Bob Stapleton to close the door on the former regime’s doping past and take the high road, so to speak.

Stapleton, an American and a former executive with the telecommunications giant, was brought on board last year to clean up the cycling team anyway, so the withdrawal of the company gave him the chance to take it a step further, by moving the team and its anti-doping program to the land of opportunity — the good ol’ USA.

The American team’s mission: To ride clean, ride well, and build enough cachet to attract a full-time sponsor to keep the team in operation beyond next season.

As it stands now, Stapleton said High Road’s ”plan is to be here this year and next year.” Though T-Mobile had been a long-time cycling sponsor, its departure allowed Stapleton to start anew.

“It looks good now; there’s good interest in the team,” Stapleton said Thursday as he stood outside the team’s motor home at Road Atlanta, the site of the Team Time Trial in Stage 4. “I think people want to see authentic athletic success, and we’ve got a good, clean group of athletes, probably the youngest pro tour team with 15 guys 25 and under on the roster. Top young riders from all around the world, and it’s very clear that we’re dead serious against doping.

“We have the testing programs. We’re really pushing for change in the sport. And I think that’s what sponsors want to see.”

High Road’s independent anti-doping program is much like the one American continental team Slipstream-Chipotle created to be at the forefront of the change in cycling. UCI Pro Tour teams CSC and Astana have adopted similar programs.

“Clean and concrete actions against doping, athletes that are competive … that’s what sponsors want to see,” Stapleton said. “You don’t have to win the Tour de France. You just have to be competitive. You can do that; it’s a realistic goal. Our guys have shown that they can do that.”

High Road drove the peloton in the first three stages of the Tour de Georgia, and it paid off in Greg Henderson’s stage win in Stage 3, with two days in the yellow jersey as the bonus. On the day of Henderson’s win, High Road’s Kim Kirchen also beat TdF favorite Cadel Evans in Flèche Wallonne. Captain George Hincapie won a stage of the Tour of California this year, and High Road riders Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins recently won World Track Championships racing for Great Britain. Andrei Griepel won the season-opening Tour Down Under. The team has won 25 races thus far this season.

“This is kind of a transition year where people needed to see progress and our team needed to show quality,” Stapleton said. “We’ve shown the quality; now we need to see the sport headed in a good direction.”

Cycling’s most pressing problem at the moment, Stapleton said, is the differences between the sports biggest promoter – Amaury Sports Organization, owner of the Tour de France — and the sports governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale.

 ”The biggest issue is the lack of stability in the sport,” Stapleton said. “People aren’t sure what’s going to happen, what the structure of the sport is going to be moving forward. I think you’ll see some positive changes this summer.”

Perhaps, though the ASO and UCI are akin to Hatfield and the McCoys; the ASO and UCI seemingly get offended if either looks at the other askance.

“Exactly; there’s a complete lack of trust at this stage,” said Stapleton, who nevertheless remains hopeful. “I think you’ll see some structural changes that will be good for the sport.”

Despite the doping issues of the past and the in-fighting at the highest level, cycling seems to be on the upswing in the U.S.

“That’s exactly my view,” Stapleton said. “That’s why I wanted to identify the team as a U.S. Team. I’m an American, so it’s obvious, but I think we have a great future in North American.”

To that end, the Tour of California drew record crowds this year, the Tour de Georgia is back for its sixth year and the Tour of Missouri had a successful debut last year. These races have been joined as UCI-rated events by The Colorado Stage Race, the Rochester Omnium and the Tour of Pennsylvania. Plus, work quietly continues on what could be the granddaddy of them all, the Tour of America

“Cycling’s the largest participation sport in the U.S., and the demographics of cycling are as good as or superior to golf in a marketing perspective,” Stapleton said. “Smart marketers will figure it out.”

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