Jonathan Vaughters' guide to building a WorldTour squad, Tour de l'Avenir preview - podcast

Hello and welcome to the Cyclingnews podcast. This week we have three exclusive interviews just for you with Jonathan Vaughters, Alex Howes and French journalist Pierre Carrey all featuring on the episode.

First up, just to remind you, our friends at Sportful have come up with a 20% discount on all products at sportful.com. All you have to do is head to their website and use the code: cyclingnews20. This deal is in place throughout all of August.

Sticking with Sportful, we still have two Bahrain-Merida jerseys signed by Vincenzo Nibali to give away. All you have to do to win is go to our iTunes page and give us a review. We'll pick the two lucky winners later this month.

We start with Jonathan Vaughters and a similar theme to last week’s transfer special. In this interview, Vaughters talks about what he looks for in a rider, the different criteria at play and how he has built EF Education First. It’s an eye-opening journey into the complex dynamics in play when it comes to structuring for the future and balancing both long term and immediate goals. There’s also a cameo from Alex Howes, after we caught up with the US national road champion at the Tour of Utah.

Our final interview is with the well-respected French journalist Pierre Carrey who is a regular contributor to Liberation. Carrey gives us the rundown on the Tour de l’Avenir, which starts on Thursday. The 10-day race is viewed as a mini Tour de France with a raft of U23 riders and future stars taking part. We talk about the relevance of the race, how team managers use it as a hunting ground for talent, how the style of racing compares to the WorldTour, and who to watch over the next fortnight.

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