One-way Ticket
written by Jonathan Vaughters published by Penguin Books
One third of the way into Jonathan Vaughters’s book, I thought, finally, we’re getting somewhere. Not that the book dragged. The principal of what’s now EF Education First Pro Cycling (formerly Slipstream Sports) starts at his first road race. We go back in time to get a portrait of a cyclist as a young boy. Vaughters, with writer Jeremy Whittle, also sets the stage for the sporting and moral challenges the young JV will face. There are a few nice snapshots of what a jerk young Lance Armstrong is. It’s not much an insight there, but a nice confirmation of what we now know about the one-time seven-time Tour de France winner. Then, at about the one-third mark,
we arrive at JV’S first forays into European cycling. He just doesn't get why the Spanish and Italian riders are so darn fast. Of course, you probably already know of the cyclisme à deux vitesses that the “hero” of One-way Ticket is first experiencing. If you don’t know much about the past 30 years of pro road cycling, you’ll be taken along to the big reveal with the protagonist. If, however, you’re a cycling fan, you’ll say something like, “Yeah, JV, I know. But do you have anything to add to our knowledge of what was going on at that time?” He does.
Vaughters gets into the mechanics of doping, especially how he practised it, and its effects on riders and the pro peloton of the time. But, unlike Michael Rasmussen’s book Yellowfe ver( Gulfe ber), which famously outed Ryder Hesjedal as a doper, Vaughters opts for more discretion. When his Spanish team, his first professional outfit, got a doctor who was willing to bend the rules about injections, Vaughers doesn’t tell us the doctor’s name. In a scene from the 1996 Vuelta al Pais Vasco in which a rider yells, “Long live chemistry! Am I really this strong or did the chemicals make me with way?” Vaughters simply refers to the chemistry enthusiast as a “famous rider.”
Other omissions by Vaughters seem more significant. Hesjedal’s name comes up once. The 2012 Giro d’italia, which the Victoria rider won, the only Grand Tour win by any of Vaughters’ riders, comes up twice. Remember, Vaughters’ image for his Twitter handle is of him holding the trophy awarded to the winner of the Giro. Yet, there are no stories from that victory in the book. Maybe he had nothing to add to that chapter of his life. Vaughters does unpack the Bradley Wiggins saga and all the problems the Slipstream general manager had with David Brailsford of Team Sky, now Ineos. Still, despite what’s missing, One-wayticket is a good read from one of the most important managers in modern road cycling.