EF turned Tour into "most fun race ever", but shifts gears for fall: "Let's see how many mistakes we can make"

With the loss of Richard Carapaz, the team had to swallow a bitter pill before the Tour. “We had to say, ‘Ok, we’re not going to have a GC guy, so we’re just racing every day.’ The guys really took that to heart and made the most of it. For me, this Tour was probably the most fun race that we have had,” Vaughters told Domestique.

His team showed its attacking spirit right from the start, but it was on day six that EF hit the jackpot. Healy soloed to an awe-inspiring victory in Vire, Normandie. “From there on out, everyone could race in a more relaxed manner,” Vaughters recalls. “We were like, ‘Okay, so what are we going to do next?’”

The team didn't have much time to think, as Healy took the leader's jersey four days later. “Carrying the yellow jersey is the most important thing you can do in cycling. Even if it is just for one or two days, it is still a career-defining moment. Ben went from being a really exciting rider to Ben the superstar. All of a sudden, Ben’s dog was a superstar. It all came together for a few days - and it showed what cycling can be,” said the team boss.

To top it all off, Healy also finished ninth in the overall standings. According to Vaughters, that was not entirely expected. “He is an all-or-nothing kind of guy, not a do-not-lose dude.He can race GC his own way and still get a really good result.”

The Irishman's racing style is worth its weight in gold to the team boss. “If someone said to me, ‘If someone said to me, ‘I’ll trade you Ben having the race he had for a super conservative ride that gets him fifth on GC instead of ninth, but without Ventoux, without the stage win, without the yellow jersey,’ I’m not taking that trade. That’s a bad trade,” said the American.

It was the unity within the team that particularly struck Vaughters. “It is very rare to go three weeks without a disagreement between riders. These guys moved as one unit from day one,” he said. “Every single time there was an opportunity, we were there and we weren't there with individual riders, we were there as a team.”

And now build on the good spirit of the Tour? Not entirely, as EF seems to be taking a slightly different approach. “We are going to throw a bunch of spaghetti against the wall and see what sticks,” Vaughters says, referring to trying new tactics. “Let’s just throw it all out there, see how many mistakes we can make from now to the end of the year, so we can correct those mistakes for next season.”

EF had a great Tour and seems to be heading for a somewhat experimental fall. For Vaughters, however, there is only one lesson to be learned: adaptability. “Don’t mourn what you’ve lost for too long, or you’ll miss what’s great sitting right under your nose,” the American concludes with a nice one-liner.