I think this is the right take. Granted, I have never ridden with them, but the general consensus of your post is the sense I get.

I always tell people that a big part of this sport is who is able to think through a proper decision while you are redlining for sometime. We see races won and lost all of the time because of this. Its easy to make a bad decision in the heat of the moment especially when you interpret others actions incorrectly. Regardless of whether Williams' move was intentional, I think the other team's sprinter is on the money with his point. That kind of thing makes it more dangerous for everyone and that is fair to vocalize.

Cycling is horrifyingly dangerous at times anyway particularly sprints, so if someone wants to say this I have no issue. Things won't change a thing though. Near as I can tell these things are happening earlier and more often across the spectrum.

Oh, OK - my apologies to all

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

It's also copyright infringement...

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

Here is a different angle. Not heinous, but unnecessary and not a good look.

https://imgur.com/7AfeKo7

Also, here is the racing situation that led to this incident.


https://imgur.com/HLDrpki

I’m glad to hear there’s such good in-person dynamics because judging from just the social lens, it looks like a glam squad. Engaging kids and fans is how more people will come to the sport and help it grow, so good to see they’re using a platform to do so. I know a couple guys on the team and they’re good dudes.

Raceing-wise, yeah, crits are about being assertive. But there’s a line between that and aggressive, like Corey moving across the road and Justin getting in Hernandez’s face. That’s uncalled for and lame and a bit entitled (which is ironic). They’re pushy racing because there isn’t another team that can push back right now; would have been awesome to see then square off with the old UHC Blue Train.

The Sac race was stacked to almost be a victory lap and payout. They wanted it to get a lot of attention and make crits more popular. But then they don’t invite the big US men’s teams and riders; if you want to grow the sport, wouldn’t you try to have the best? Amy Pieters and Demi Vollering were there, so why not someone from another Specialized team like DQS or Bora? On top of it they refused to join the new association of teams that emerged from the USA Crits series fallout: https://cyclingtips.com/...year-to-pr-disaster/ Don’t get me wrong, I applaud what the team is doing. But from a sporting POV it rings a bit hollow to me.

Too bad that the continued decline of pro stage and road racing in the U.S. has pushed Human Powered Health almost entirely overseas. Robin Carpenter occassionally does some crit banging, and does OK for a willowy roadie.

Some recent crits have been pretty good. Best Buddies at full strength is a near match for Legion - but they're just not as deep as Legion, so when they're a man down like they are now (injury), it leaves Hernandez having to do hero moves on the last lap. And Luke Lamperti all by himself is also a match for all of Legion. But he's probably headed back to Europe, being a Trinity guy.

The Miami Blazers are an interesting team, based loosely on the Legion model (and with at least one Legion rider, Dante Young, who jumped across mid-season). Just not quite at the top level yet.

Honestly, not bad fisticuffs for bike racers. Better than a Schleck brothers bout.

They might cut something proper with those bones.

Thankfully we have something to keep us entertained on the rest day.

Every thread I have seen online has focused on one of the 2 racing incidents.

Before the guttering as posted by turdburgler, hernadez takes a pretty aggressive inside line and bumps elbows with Williams that almost takes Williams out. The first move is aggressive, but you see that kind of move plenty even in the 4/5s.

I had a MTB race yesterday and missed the chaos that was yesterday's stage and still need to watch the MTB world cup on red bull, some how managed to avoid spoilers so far!

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Haven't seen Hernandez's move and if it was sketchy. The normal bumping and jostling for position is one thing--even though Corey's looked blatant--but bigger issue for me is Justin using in and taking a swing. That's amateur hour.

https://www.instagram.com/...gshid=NWRhNmQxMjQ%3D

eta: the more I watch that, the more it looks like Corey might have overlapped wheels with his teammate in front of him and that is what sends his front wheel squirrely.

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There's no way a light elbow bump like that is going to make the front wheel do that. I say this as I'm healing from a shit wreck where I touched wheels and went down at 25 mph :(

I find the whole endeavor calculating and a tad cynical

Legion is not "[one's] dad's cycling team" perhaps only in terms of ethnic make-up of the team. While that is a laudable goal, the rest of the team's actions really aren't that much different from cycling teams of yesteryears.

Their racing antics are just the latest iterations of incidents such as "patrons" of the crit peloton such as Graeme Miller resorting to dangerous argy-bargy tactics to take wheels, or, more recently, UHC trains muscling people off (often literally). Sure, maneuvers like those are distinctly American Crit style, but they surely don't support the claims of one's moral high roads (which is what is implied by Legion's general messaging).

As for the community outreach, when the goods donated are provided by one's sponsors and when it's in one's own financial interest to play up that image, I'm just not sure how much of their present level of community outreach exceeds minimal effort required for the self-interested aim of maintaining their public image, the latter being the key draw for their sponsors (and their money).

As someone who doesn't really pay much attention to the US crit scene, it seems to me like there's a bit of an identity crisis thing going on among those trying to grow the sport. On the one hand there seem to be some folks that want to play up the spectacle of it, adding in the bravado of, say, the NFL, along with the potential for carnage of, say, Nascar. And you can see why that would play well with audiences. On the other hand there seem to be folks that are concerned that the more dangerous/antagonistic the scene gets, the harder it's going to be to get new riders into the sport. So, what do you do? Do you play up the spectacle at the expense of participation? Or do you make it safer but perhaps less engaging to new audiences?

FWIW, I feel like L39gion have generally done a pretty great job and Justin in particular has some great ideas. There's been stuff to criticize for sure but I think he's helped the US crit scene far more than he may have damaged it.

Definitely agree. Absolutely no need for Justin to bring hands into the fray. USAC should throw some suspensions for anyone involved in the fight to make an example and shut this type of behavior down immediately.

Corey seemed to catch himself before pushing Hernandez into the curb. I would say more than likely some bars were crossed up. Corey was probably trying to make up ground to prevent Hernandez from gaining position. With Hernandez pushing out and Corey coming up there could have easily been some bar overlap and that would definitely cause Corey's front wheel to turn abruptly in the way that it did.


On a side note, why is Hernandez wearing the US Criterium Nation Champion jersey??? Luke Lamperti is the US Pro Criterium National Champion and this is a professional race is it not? That makes zero sense to me. To many national championships to keep up with. But that is for another thread I guess.

Ironically "who gets to wear the stars and stripes in a pro crit" was the issue behind the original #critbeef.

What is the backstory to this weirdness?

I didn't follow the whole thing. But a few years back Justin Williams was the amateur crit national champion and Travis McCabe (then of Best Buddies) was the pro national champion. And they were both wearing the stars and stripes in pro crits. Words were spoken about etiquette, and a social media firestorm ensued. Pretty silly, all around.

I've been pretty glad to see Luke Lamperti (apparently an all-around nice guy) just barge through the middle of those two teams the past two years and take the pro jersey.

But it's kind of funny to see a Best Buddies guy wearing the kit as amateur champ.

Why is LaPorte pulling the peloton when WvA is in the front group?

I thought that would be reason enough to earn his teammates a rest and shift the burden onto Ineos or UAE?

laporte/ benoot have to pull for yellow jersey only being 2-2.5 minutes ahead of vlasov. an equally interesting question is why wout and van hooy are in front group. wout hopefully can make it to the top of final climb before pogi and vinge and lend a hand on descent/manage things.
van hooy will never make it over both climbs but maybe the first to help push into the second? its also a little interesting whether any team might help limit vlasov's lead (mentjes? ineos? bardet?). we'll see. that 2nd/final climb has a brutal finish. maybe 5-6 riders left at top maybe just 1 (pogi).

good point on Vlasov; completely discounted him

Blastoff has been on the mend. Very dangerous. Is he nickname worthy?

And. It's on! Tadej throwing combos.

Interesting. Movistar helping out