Blazin' Saddles: Jonathan Vaughters praises 'maverick' Rigoberto Uran at new kit launch

Dressed in a stripy cardigan and with an elegantly trimmed beard, Vaughters cuts a dashing figure backstage at the Rouleur Classic event in London.

The EF Education First-Drapac powered by Cannondale manager – try saying that after a few too many glasses of complimentary rouge – is in town for the launch of his team's new kit for the upcoming season.

On the event's opening night, Vaughters took to the main stage to talk about his struggles to find a new sponsor for the only American team in the WorldTour – a journey that saw a crowd-funding campaign save his bacon with the help of new title sponsor, EF Education First.

At Friday's kit launch, Vaughters told TV's Orla Chennaoui – fresh from an uncomfortable roasting from Johan Museeuw – just how close his Argyle army came to folding before finding a new sponsor at the 11th hour. New signing, the Swedish national champion Kim Magnusson, then appeared on stage sporting the team's slick new POC-designed pink, green and white kit for 2018 – a radical departure from Cannondale-Drapac's luminous all-green number.

Afterwards, Vaughters took 15 minutes out for a Q&A with Blazin' Saddles.

JV: I was hoping they would go for this design, but they just chose not to.

I had my little bits and pieces to say, but obviously there are a lot of design elements in play.

Very. We needed to depart from where we had been in the past and make a clean break and move forward, and to move the image of the team into a slightly different direction. That said, Argyle is still there [on the armbands].

I don't think so. The Giro organisers were sitting just there and they didn't tell me there would be any problems. I don't think we'll run into too much of an issue. There's a lot of other colours than pink.

[Laughs] We can hope! I mean, we definitely, er– we have a number of sprinters this year who could make that happen, so I think there's a strong chance.

Yes, a Brit in Dan McLay.

Yeah, for quite a while. I've been after him for a couple of years now. It's good to get him on board.

Yeah, Dan's more of a pure sprinter and Sacha's a little bit more of a sprinter who can handle mountains and can get over some pretty big hills and still sprint out of a reduced group. So they've got different qualities.

Yeah, I mean, we had been developing some really beautiful young talent, but you have to be patient with that talent – and we were. The winning just came as part of being patient – it was really nothing more or nothing less. And you know, I think that going forward, we've built the team in such a way that hopefully we won't re-encounter that same problem.

The team's always been very flush with talent. So, it's always a matter of bringing out the best in the riders.

Yeah, I dunno, I mean, [Sep Vanmarcke was] third in Paris-Roubaix – that's my favourite classic, so we were on the podium in the most important one.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've got to get Sep a win in a Monument before it's all said and done.

Ah, listen, there's been a lot of low points and tough moments. Little by little I'm just becoming a little more hardened to deal with all of them. But this one was a tough one, for sure.

And that's what set it up. It's a beautiful thing – people let their wallets allow us to survive, the fans chose to allow this team to survive. In return they'll get a lot of mugs and t-shirts – but they also get the knowledge that half-a-million dollars has been invested into this team to make it better than it was before.

The Tour de France. It's always been the main target. Then, after that, Paris-Roubaix, because it's such a beautiful race, and the Tour of Flanders.

Yeah, yeah he did. Well, he didn't necessarily surprise me, but he did surprise a lot of other people. Now we just have to figure out how to build on that. We just got to keep chipping away. If you're not moving forwards in cycling, you're moving backwards.

Yeah, they gave us an opportunity to survive and it was very generous on their part and I'm really grateful. I can't really thank them enough. It's one of those things – I'll owe them for the rest of my life.

Listen, that was just the natural part of what we were going through. It allowed us to change around the roster and to move things in a positive way forward. You know, it's always hard to lose riders with whom you've grown emotionally attached to, but it's just part of the business.

Well, it was his first year in the ProTour last year so that's always a transition, but I think we can build on what he did last year.

[Laughs] Brian Holm. Well, he's not on my team. But we've got a load of stylist guys on the team. I think Rigo's pretty stylish and sexy, don't you think? [A team assistant adds: "I've seen him blow dry his hair on the bus…"] Yeah, I'd say Rigo. He's a fashionable dude. [The assistant says, "Taylor?"] Oh, yeah, Taylor [Phinney]. And Alex [Howes].

Well, I like his style too. The big old handlebar moustache is a good look. I'm from the Old West and Colorado so we like that sort of thing.

Oh dear. Well, I'm obviously supportive of beards. I don't feel like they should be banned and feel that, even if they are performance enhancing, we should let them be.

[Laughs] I said 1970s – that's hardly the dark ages!

Oh yeah, they got very upset with that. But the thing with Pierre wasn't actually directed at them – it was directed at Pierre. You know, Pierre was sort of doing his own training. I don't know what sort of training methods they would have recommended – but Pierre wasn't doing their methods, he was doing his own thing, which was very much 1970s-style training. So, yeah, that had to change.

Finally pulling it off? Yeah, for sure. I don't think that, psychologically, he's necessarily set up to ride for GC, so it's good to lead him away from that pressure and let him pursue what his natural persona is all about.

[Laughs] It came from our camp at Aspen where he showed a remarkable tolerance in being able to consume tequila.

Oh. Let's see. [Pause]. He's a… he's a… oh… he's not very grippy, so he's soft and he's friendly and he's getting better with age, and he's not very fatty… Um, erm… so, I'm thinking somewhere in Burgundy. I would say that Rigo would be the equivalent of a 1990 Clos de La Roche Domaine Dujac.

Chris Froome is more of a first growth Bordeaux – he's like an '82 Chateau Margaux.

I wouldn't call him a Beaujolais Nouveau because that means he'll only be good for a couple of years and then he'll be gone. But is he a Grand Cru Classé Beaujolais? Absolutely. Maybe he'll even move up to being a Domaine Dujac.

I don't know. It's a long game but he's certainly read to win a race.

Good grief. Well, it's just everyone involved in this team. I don't know what to say. Boy. Gosh. I mean, for me, Dan Martin – he isn't now – but when with us, he was the classic misfit. And then maverick? I'd say Rigo's a real maverick. But no one knows that he's a maverick because he's so nice. You come across him and he's just doing it his own way. And the more you try to mess with his way, the worse he's going to ride. So, to me, Rigo is the ultimate maverick because he sets up how he's going to do it, why he's going to do it, and he tells you how he's going to do it, and all you can do it stand back and admire the fireworks.

Yeah, I think so. It's a very dynamic Tour so it will require a dynamic and tactically astute rider, which Rigo is. A diverse rider who can handle all different types of terrains, which Rigo can do, so I think it should work out in his advantage.

No message for David Lappartient. [Laughs]

No, this is fun stuff. It's great to see how enthusiastic people are for bike racing. It's early winter in London and you get a great turnout, so that's fun to see.

Exactly. It's really cool. I'm very flattered that so many people want to see the new kit, too.

Well, there you go. [Claps] I'm pleased.

What scares me? The situation with team funding is a structural issue that has to be looked at much harder than before and people have to buckle down and make compromises that are for the best for the riders and helpful to the sport. But that requires compromise on the part of the race organisers and whether or not they're willing to make those compromises yet, I don't know. So, of course, it's scary, but also correctable. And what excites me is when you see such enthusiastic crowds turning up to events like this. It shows that, at the end of it all, cycling has a truly engaged vibrant and passionate fanbase.

Thank you. Hey, if you're into wine, my wife – Ashley Hausman Vaughters – is being officially inducted as a Master of Wine in a ceremony on Tuesday night here in London. So, if you'd like to write something about wine as well as cycling, then you should come along. I'll give you my number and we can hook up.