Jonathan “JV” Vaughters runs the United State’s oldest professional cycling team, an international organization of over 120 riders and staff that race across the globe. A former pro and teammate of Lance Armstong, JV founded the team as a repudiation of cycling’s rampant culture of doping. Over the course of a decade, he built a squad that competes at the highest level–drug free. 

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In 2020, after sweeping the top three spots at the season’s first major race, Tour Colombia, his team appears poised to capture cycling’s most coveted prize: a win at the 21- day odyssey of the Tour de France. JV’s top rider, Rigoberto “Rigo” Urán, a Colombian superstar, is returning to form after a catastrophic injury. He is accompanied by two acolytes and countrymen, Dani Martinez and Sergio Higuita, both of whom would sacrifice themselves to place Rigo on the podium. A pair of U.S. riders, TeJay van Garderen, a steely veteran and father of two young girls with nine tours under his belt, and Neilson Powless, a doe-eyed newcomer, complete the ensemble. Enter the Slipstream lives within the world of JV and this band of riders during a year of insecurity and potential, voyaging from Colombia to Spain and onto France, where they fight their way from the Cote-d’Azur through 3,000 kilometers of French countryside all the way to Paris. Through victories and heartbreaks, these young men ceaselessly pedal forward while JV maintains a brave face and hides the secret that could tear the team apart. 

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Along the journey, we discover why the Tour de France is not so much a race as a cultural institution. We learn about the sport’s fragile economics, made only more vulnerable by a coronavirus settling like dust across the planet. And we take inspiration from seeing how the seemingly solitary activity of riding a bike competitively is an act of teamwork in the purest form.