Svein Tuft of Langley, B.C., is the highest-paid cyclist on Canada's Team Spidertech. (Vincent Jannink/Getty Images)

Throughout his professional career as a cyclist, Steve Bauer has earned the respect of his peers. Medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and 1985 world cycling championships and a fourth-place finish in the 1988 Tour de France helped, but that's not where it ends.

Today, the St. Catharines, Ont., native is making history as the director of the first Canadian cycling team to receive an International Cycling Union (UCI) Continental Pro license.

It is an enormous achievement.

It means Bauer's Team Spidertech is eligible to compete for all UCI-sanctioned events, including the Tour de France. That won't happen immediately, but his ambitious goal is to get the team to the start of the 2013 Tour.

The first big step was the signing of Svein Tuft of Langley, B.C.

Tuft is, undoubtedly, a good rider. He earned the silver medal in the individual time trial at the 2008 worlds, despite bursting a tire six kilometres from the finish. Last year, he rode with fellow Canadian Ryder Hesjedal, who placed seventh in the 2010 Tour de France, on the Garmin-Transitions team.

"It's extremely exciting," Bauer said of Tuft's acquisition. "His leadership will be strong, with all the experience he's gained on the pro tour the last two years.

"He's a natural captain. Svein gives us that extra boost and the timing couldn't be more perfect."

Tuft will formally meet his new teammates at the team's launch at Toronto's Hockey Hall of Fame on Friday, though he's familiar with most of his new mates from his days on the national cycling team. Indeed, he was seventh in the time trial at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

At 15, he dropped out of school to explore the wilderness of B.C. He rode a bike into the woods and lived off the land for a spell. He completed a 4,000-kilometre round trip ride to Alaska and, on one of his numerous mountain climbing expeditions, he and a friend were trapped on a cliff for 24 hours after their rope got caught on a rock.

"It was up on the Coquihalla Summit," Tuft said, laughing. "We were trying a new route and we ended up getting stuck up there.

"The weather turned from a nice August day to a pretty rainy and wild night on the mountain. We finally made it by rappelling down the mountain.

"We were just happy to have our feet on normal ground. You spend enough time out there, you run into some troubles, that's for sure.”

"I think that the greatest thing about those adventures is you learn about yourself and how you respond to situations," Tuft continued. "In our case, we were just stoked to be alive and happy to go do it again.

"Again, those tools help you in other areas of life."

A strong mental attitude is essential in road cycling, especially in the individual time trial — a high risk event in which each racer goes hell bent against the clock. Yet to this day, Tuft can't fathom how he became an elite racer.

"Until I was 21, I didn't even know what the Tour de France was," he admitted. "I never grew up with cycling.

"It wasn't until I started bike touring that I realized how great cycling was. By no means did I think I would become a bike racer and do it as a job.

"I wanted to get out to the mountains and bikes provided a cheap way to get out there."

Tuft took up road cycling in 1999 and, within two years, earned a place on the Canadian national team, but that success did nothing to alter his eccentric character.

After he signed with U.S. pro team Prime Alliance in 2003, he rode his bike all the way from B.C. to the team's southern California training camp. He lived in a trailer in his early years as a professional, heading back into the wilderness at the end of each racing season. Still, he won the Canadian national time trial event in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008, with only Hesjedal interrupting his streak in 2007.

Under the terms of the UCI license, Team Spidertech must pay their riders a minimum of $40,000 US a year in salary. Though salaries remain confidential, Bauer revealed that Tuft will be the highest paid on the team. Considering the world's top cyclists earn million-dollar salaries, Tuft is likely to be well into six figures.

'The cleanest professional sport'

Bauer's strategy is to sign 10 major Canadian companies as sponsors, to increase the operating budget and to get to the starting line of the Tour de France.

That in itself will be a challenge with the less than robust economy.

Even more daunting is the reality that it is now routine for Tour de France winners to be accused of doping.

On that point, Bauer is adamant. He will sport a clean team.

"Cycling, if not already, will be the cleanest professional sport in the world," he declared. "Eventually, all the athletes stupid enough to take performance enhancing drugs will be caught.

"We cannot make the same statement for many other professional sports because they do not test their athletes with the same stringency as cycling."

Bauer proudly points to Planet Energy, Blackberry, Saputo, NRS Brakes and Pine Tree Capital as financial sponsors who have joined Spidertech.

"A good guess would be that a pro team needs between $15 and $20 million a year to sustain a top team," he said. "It's a big task.

The Spidertech team will spend two weeks at a training camp in southern France before competing in its first race of the season Feb. 18 in Italy. Major targets include the two UCI pro tour races in Montreal and Quebec City next fall and the UCI world road cycling championships in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Sept. 19-25.

"When I talked to Steve last summer, I felt this is where I want to be," Tuft said. "Then, all of a sudden, the opportunity presented itself.

"Ever since I signed up, I have had a smile from ear to ear. I see at least four more good years in me.

"I have always said I'd go to the next Olympics, but I want to go further than that."