Review of Vaughters' new book

[benb]

Originally Posted by prototoast

I often get the feeling that JV hides behind anti-doping and financial challenges to try to cover up his dysfunctional management of his team. Garmin/EF/etc seems to be where promising careers go to die, and so much of that seems to be bad management practices.

Phil Gaimon's descriptions of riding for Vaughters in his book(s) are pretty frightening. He strikes me as the worst kind of manipulative pointy haired boss.... maybe it gets him what he wants but it seemed like it directly hurt his team's results too. Stuff like dictating certain workouts before a race that ruin the riders chances in the race. Exactly the kind of thing that would penalize a clean rider vs a doped rider actually since doping helps recovery so much. Keeping riders in the dark about whether they were going to have a job the next year for most of the season so they're nervous the whole season and can't concentrate on training.

Having tried to train through work stress, having a baby, etc.. I can't imagine how bad it would be to be a pro cyclist living hand to mouth and constantly having to look over your shoulder cause the DS is messing with you and you're worried about whether you have a job right in the middle of the important part of the season.

[CunegoFan]

Originally Posted by weiwentg

On balance, I can definitely live with Vaughters. Some of you who were in the Chris Horner thread are going to ask, how is your stance on Vaughters consistent with your stance on Horner? The answer for me is pretty clear. Vaughters has been a lot more honest on balance than Horner.

Honest? Vaughters told USADA a BS story about how he only doped a few times after he left Postal using leftover EPO, which evidently lasted for years and years after he purchased it. Uh-huh. Yet when he retired the pros who moved into his place complained about all the needles and drug paraphernalia he left behind. Tygart bought into the unbelievable story because it supported the narrative he wanted to create.

I know that during the 2006 TdF Vaughters made a presentation to a group of potential backers. He pitched a team based around Floyd Landis, and he assured them Floyd was clean despite knowing not only that Floyd was doping but that Floyd would continue to dope after he joined the team. The two talked about it before the presentation. Now maybe Floyd getting busted led to a major change in Vaughters thinking, but at the very least what he was presenting to the public at that time and what he was presenting to his team, or at least certain riders, was very different.

[spoonrobot]

Vaughters is/was just as dirty as everyone else. He even used the same style intimidation tactics as lance just with a velvet glove instead of an iron one. His book is to make money, gain him prestige and keep his name in the news. Nothing more.

Steve Tilford hashed him out pretty good, Vaughters hasn't done anything to redeem himself in the years since.