7 Jonathan Vaughters, CEO of EF Education First Pro Cycling Team

Cycling in Alignment with Colby Pearce

Long-time friends, training partners, and competitors, Jonathan Vaughters and Colby Pearce have a deep racing history and relationship. With decades of experience in pro cycling, they have gained many insights about training, coaching, and the trajectory of the sport.

Colby and JV first discuss their early training techniques, taught to them by their first cycling coach, Adrie Van Diemen, a Dutch exercise physiologist now with UAE Team Emirates. Many of the techniques are now considered to be standard practice. The pair reminisce about how they were ahead of their time, in many ways, even though they didn’t realize it.

Vaughters, who has coached many pro cyclists over the years, then gives examples of experiments gone right—and wrong—and how certain training regimens should be applied to certain types of athletes. He also openly discusses the conflict of interest in coaching athletes while also serving as their team manager.

The discussion then turns to the finer details of cycling technique, including a detailed explanation of how crank length affects a rider’s ability to climb, sprint, and win. JV even describes the time he swapped cranks behind the back of his former team manager, Johan Bruyneel.

Next, the conversation turns to Rigoberto Urán, who finished second in the 2017 Tour de France. The Colombian’s diet at that year’s race included bananas and… bananas. Vaughters uses that example to illustrate how the natural and simple solution oftentimes bests all of the “advanced” nutrition expertise in the world—and how athletes often discover what works best for them and “solve their own equation.”

That, and much more, in today’s episode of “Cycling in Alignment.”

REFERENCES

• Book: “One-Way Ticket: Nine Lives on Two Wheels” https://www.amazon.com/One-Way-Ticket-Nine-Lives-Wheels/dp/0143134140
• Coach Adrie Van Diemen http://www.webtrainer.com/nl/