If you love the sport of cycling, you should be rooting for Team Slipstream-Chipotle

Jonathan Vaughters, the director sportif of Team Slipstream-Chipotle (team links here and here), was interviewed recently on The Competitors Radio by Bob Babbitt and Paul Huddle, and you can find the podcast here.  If you haven't heard their weekly podcasts, you are missing out on a ton of knowledge (and laughter) about endurance sports that make all those long runs & rides less boring and more entertaining.

Vaughters gives the most open and honest appraisal I've ever heard of the predicament that professional cycling has gotten itself into, and his team's approach to taking the first steps to solve it.  It involves thousands of drug tests, an open-door policy for any media outlet that wants access to such results, and, most importantly, sponsors who share his vision that race results are not the ultimate prize.  The last reason is critical since this is what has bedeviled cycling for the last decade -- by simultaneously demanding top results from riders in order to stay employed but turning a blind eye towards what those riders were forced to resort to just to stay competitive, cycling teams created and fostered the drug culture which is only just starting to loosen with the coming of age of the young generation (witness rising American star Taylor Phinney's sticker on his top tube: "Dopers suck").

Here are the podcast notes:

Jonathan Vaughters was a professional cyclist who basically quit his sport young, at the age of 30, partly because he was frustrated by the rampant drug use. Now Vaughters is running the Slipstream Cycling Team and accountability is the name of the game. His team will administer 1200 drug tests to their athletes this year alone and the media will be invited to training camps so that they can see that Team Slipstream is clean. He is out to change the culture of the sport of cycling by hopefully proving that you can be competitive and drug free at the same time. Vaughters was incredibly open and honest in this conversation.

Highly recommended listening.  If you are a cycling fan who loves this beautiful sport, you should be rooting for their team to experience success in the Grand Tours.  While you're at it, throw a little love to the sponsors who make it all possible; a list of the oh-so-tasty Chipotle restaurants in your area can be found here.

Comments

[Levi]

I was parked next to these guys at the Tour de Toona last year. Seems like a great team and the bikes are nothing short of beautiful!