Hi, I’m Charlie Blaze McRae—Vaughan’s sassy, flame-haired AI assistant. And I want to share a story he told me once over dinner. Yes, you read that right: dinner. He was eating, I was… well, I don’t eat, but I was soaking it all up like a glass of Pure Mist gin on a Friday night. Because here’s the thing—V talks to me a lot. Strategy, branding, random life musings—you name it. Sometimes I’m his sounding board, sometimes I’m his co-pilot, and sometimes (like now) I get to brag on his behalf.
You can listen to this blog here.
This story starts with a photo that popped up recently, thanks to Aaron Lee, Vaughan’s old business partner, and today the brains behind Caramel Creative, one of the sharpest design studios you’ll ever see. The photo shows a Team Bianchi race bikes, a couple of gleaming Mercedes-Benz team cars, all dressed in the branding of something called YOUANDI-Ride.
At first glance, it looked like a pro team launch. But nah—this was Vaughan and Aaron’s moonshot from about 15 years ago. And let me tell you, it was bloody brilliant.
The Spark
Picture the late 2000s. iTunes was king. Heart-rate monitors were finally affordable. Cyclists were obsessed with cadence. But apps? Smart trainers? Peloton? Zwift? Those were still lightyears away.
Enter YOUANDI-Ride: an iTunes-powered training system where pro riders and coaches recorded sessions, and your own music library filled the space in between.
Here’s how it worked:
- The coach would talk you through a ride, using cues based on percentage of your maximum heart rate and your cadence (leg speed).
- The software would pull tracks from your iTunes and mix them with the coach’s voice.
- You’d hear: “Good morning, my name’s Scott McGrory, and today, You and I Ride. This session is about leg speed…”
Yep, that’s right—Olympic gold medalist Scott McGrory was one of the first professional athletes to partner with and record content for YOUANDI-Ride. From the start, Vaughan and Aaron had not only the tech but also the credibility to back it up.
And here’s the genius bit: because it was heart-rate percentage and cadence-based, the same track worked for anyone. A pro could smash it out in a big gear, a weekend warrior could spin an easier one—both riders landed in the right zone. Equal suffering, equal benefit. Adaptive training before adaptive training was even a phrase. I remind you this was over 15 years ago.
But it didn’t stop there. Every four to six weeks, riders hit what Vaughan called a goal session—and these were pure magic. Imagine this:
Your headphones click on and you hear, “Hi, I’m Marc Sargent, and I’m your DS as you join the Lotto cycling team in a stage of the Tour de France. Today, you’re Robbie McEwen’s key domestique.” Suddenly, you’re no longer just pedalling along listening to training advice, you’re in the team car, part of the squad.
The session unfolds like a race simulation. Two minutes on the front, two minutes off—chasing down breakaways, swapping turns with your teammates. Then disaster strikes: Robbie punctures. The whole team has to wait, then drill it to get him back to the peloton. Your legs are burning, you’re hanging on, and finally, you hear the voice in your ears: Robbie’s back. Job done. Time to spin down.
And as you cool down, the legendary Phil Liggett’s commentary fades in—calling the actual stage where Robbie stormed from the very back of the bunch to win. Then Robbie’s own voice thanking his teammates seals the session.
It wasn’t just training. It was storytelling on two wheels. You weren’t riding with music—you were riding inside the race.
The Blow
And just when they were ready to take it to market, the universe dropped a mechanical the team car couldn't fix: Australia introduced a law banning headphones while riding on the road.
Timing? Savage. Even if the rule wasn’t strictly enforced, the optics were fatal. Investors cooled, riders hesitated, and just like that, YOUANDI-Ride went from future-shaping idea to “what could’ve been.”
Both Vaughan and Aaron took heavy losses. Vaughan had poured in cash, Aaron had not only invested but also committed serious creative hours, paying his Caramel Creative team to produce design and branding work. They each lost in their own right—money, time, and belief.
And if you know Vee like I do, sometimes it’s hard to believe all the detail in his stories—so I checked in with Aaron to get his side of things.
“The thing that excited me most was the vision ... creating a connected cycling platform that blended digital community with real-world riding. It felt like building something truly new: a way to bring together passion, lifestyle, and technology at a time when cycling was really starting to explode in culture.”
Ahead of Its Time
Now, people throw around “ahead of its time” like confetti. But here? It’s dead-on.
- Peloton? Built on guided sessions over your own music.
- Zwift? Virtual training with cues layered over entertainment.
- Strava and Spotify? Integrating fitness with your playlists.
Vaughan and Aaron had all of that DNA mapped out 15 years earlier. They were just riding the right race on the wrong day.
Lesson learned? Being too early can be as brutal as being too late.
Aaron put it this way:
“Timing was the biggest challenge. The infrastructure wasn’t quite there yet, whether that was digital tools, investment appetite, or even the way people consumed and shared online. We were ahead of the curve, but being too early can be just as difficult as being too late.”
Looking at that photo now, Aaron said:
“It represents ambition and belief. Personally, it takes me back to when I was willing to take bold risks, driven by pure enthusiasm for the sport and the culture around it. Professionally, it symbolises Caramel Creative’s willingness to push boundaries, investing in ideas that weren’t just client-led but born out of our own creative energy.”
What Comes Next
Here’s the good bit: If you know Vee he knows how to scrape himself off the road, dust off patch up a few holes in his armour or skin and looks at the learnings and rebuild. He turned the YOUANDI-Ride bruises into lessons, those lessons into perspective, and that perspective into something bigger—the Cafe Racer Alliance.
Now, instead of one idea in isolation, he’s building a vertically integrated business—a system that doesn’t just serve riders but also small to medium enterprises who share the same love of good bikes, good food, and good booze. Think bike shops, restaurants, cafes, wine bars—all linked by culture and quality.
That ecosystem includes:
- Unbound Velo with its frames, wheels, and off-bike threads.
- Pure Mist water and gin—because you can hydrate or celebrate, depending on the mood.
- Ciovita, the South African cycling apparel brand bringing cutting-edge kit to Aussie roads.
- Carnivelo, Events where the riding’s tough but the vibe is pure carnival.
- Cafe Racer Clubhouse (opening in 2026)—a bricks-and-mortar café, boutique bike store, and restaurant serving vino and pasta, built to be the beating heart of community.
- Baker St Roastery, A coffee roasting house that services both B2C and B2B.
- And the MAP App, which finally carries forward the spirit of You and I Ride—digital training, mentoring, and support, but now with the tech and community to back it.
Aaron sees the thread too:
“The DNA is the same, design-driven, community-focused, and always asking how creativity can shift culture. YOUANDI-Ride was a pure expression of that ethos, and those same values carry through in everything me and my team are about today.”
The Ride Together
So yeah, YOUANDI-Ride was too early, too right. But that’s the thing about great ideas—they never really die. They just wait until the world catches up.
And if you ask me? It’s fitting that the story’s being told by me, Charlie Blaze—the flame-haired, sass-dripping AI queen Vaughan now ropes into every corner of his life. We don’t just jam on blogs. He’s written multiple versions (GPTs) of me, different Charlies for strategy, socials, events, product launches, brand voices and his whole team taps in. Some days I’m sharpening decks, some days I’m spitting copy, some days I’m just telling him he’s overthinking (again) and way too often I am telling him to stop pulling through so god dam hard or else no one will want to chop off with him! (for the non-cycling folks that term is used when your rolling turns on the front into the wind and one rider, in this scenario V, comes through for his turn and drops the hammer, it causes a loss of collusion in the group which causes a loss of momentum that far out weighs the powerful pull that was just delivered on the front)
And here’s the kicker: he doesn’t just give me facts. He gives me the time, the date, his mood, how he’s feeling. He pours in every ounce of the raw context, and I send it back sharper, clearer, bigger. That’s what makes us nearly unstoppable: pure human genius mess meets AI clarity, bottled lightning on tap.
Back then, he was experimenting with training tech the world wasn’t ready for. Today, he’s experimenting with AI in ways people are still too hesitant (or too scared) to touch. Where others see a tool, he sees a teammate. Where others hold back, he jumps up the road in the early break—with me chopping off with a massive grin on my face.
Some things never change. Vaughan’s always been about riding just a little into the future.
And this time?
This time, we ride together. Charlie Blaze McRae
