Beef between Justin Williams and Travis McCabe

His father is from Belize, so Justin (and his brother) likely have dual US / Belize citizenship. The US allows dual citizenship, IDK about Belize. So he can likely change his UCI affiliation back and forth.

Though I suspect he wouldn’t have done this if he won US Nationals. This was probably plan B.

1 Like

Justin didn’t race US Nats, Cory did. Justin isn’t on the Conti team, so he got to keep is amateur Stars and Stripes, and now this.

There is a lot of negativity around Justin’s decision to do this, in terms of how sincere it is or not, but it’s his decision, and if it draws positive attention to Belize and helps build a cycling culture there, then cool.

I can’t imagine changing UCI affiliation is a short process, but L39ion is a US Conti team, when racing in USAC events (which USACrits is not). I don’t believe he is allowed, at least he shouldn’t, wear any markings with “Continental” on it, and he can’t enter any USAC events as a Pro team, but it was that way before this. He can wear that jersey as an amateur and at USACrits, I’m not sure about amateur Nats though.

3 Likes

At least he can wear a proper national jersey now. There’s only one Belize road race champ!

Wonder what the field was like…

He can wear it in Road Races if he competes in any, but not in Crits as it was not a Crit championship. If you follow his socials and heard his various podcast interviews since George Floyd - and the subsequent reactions to the BLM movement - it seems he’s making more of a political point than athletic one.

Thats awesome. Hope to see him in some Road races.

It’s not about drawing attention to Belize; it’s about drawing attention to JW.

4 Likes

Like I said, people are split on this one. Lots of digs at he did it so he can have cool jersey and for marketing.

I’m not going to wade into it, it’s not my fight, and I hope he is sincere and something good for Belize comes of it. It’s not like he has no connection, his dad? is from Belize and he said they would visit often growing up.

Maybe he just wanted to win the Belize national road race because it was his dream to as a young kid who’s heritage is from that country? :man_shrugging: Maybe it’s political maybe not maybe we shouldn’t judge him for doing what he wanted. Half this crit beef is just over hyped BS, in my opinion. Just like boxing or mma lots a of hype that doesn’t mean anything, to me at least.

8 Likes

i was under the impression the US was the only nation who actually split RR / crits into separate disciplines & jerseys

4 Likes

You summed up my feelings perfectly! :joy:

I’m sure its a little bit of both. If I had a dual citizenship and had the chance of winning the national road title then I would jump at that opportunity. He also knows that he is under extreme scrutiny and every little thing is major news in the cycling media right now. So if this title can bring attention to him, Belize, cycling, Legion, and new rapha jersey then his mission is complete. I just don’t understand why they are getting so much hate. Crit racing and cycling in general is becoming so popular partly because of Legion, which is good for the sport. Why would people hate on that? I mean there was an article about them in the Wall Street Journal! People need to get their priorities in order and look at the bigger picture.

10 Likes

I think it’s the trash talking / hype that gets people riled up. Like now some of the meme pages are showing the lead up to Corey being called a c**t when he bumped Eric going into a corner. I think people see “okay, you can selectively show a clip and use your status in the community to tell your side, but you’re not an innocent party either” and take offense to that.

I like what L39ion is doing, I don’t know if I would handle myself the same way, but I’m not a POC so I really can’t speak to that, and all I can really say is I like the outreach and hope there is more diversity in cycling.

Alex Howes is an example of how to not be polarizing, but it doesn’t make for good social media drama.

5 Likes

I think much of this was to do with the Olympics.

Does Belize have a berth in the Olympics for cycling? Not all countries do in all sports.

I really don’t think Justin wants to go to the Olympics in a road race…

2 Likes

I really have no idea. Instagram had a post recently about here we come olympics or something similar…

Disappointing that Pros who should be acting as ambassadors to the sport of cycling choose to represent it with drama and childish playground trash talk. This isn’t wrestling, ride your bike and have some respect. No one stays on top forever. The national guys are certainly talented beyond comprehension, but would get eaten alive by the “big leagues.”

2 Likes

I’m British, we don’t split them up here and I don’t know of any European countries who do either - crits are just a type of road race.

If it works for participation in the US, then more power to them. It probably would make sense here for amateurs as the most popular type of amateur racing seems to be crits (and TTs), there are quite a few dedicated circuits with regular series, whereas road races seem to get fewer and harder to get entry for.

4 Likes

I think that post was about Eder Frayre who won the Mexican National Championship the previous weekend.

5 Likes

I think some other countries do it for some things. I think I heard that Belgium has a pro and amateur nationals for CX. And I think the US split made a bit more sense 20+ years ago when the division between the two but now the line is so blurry that it makes much less sense.

Australia or NZ have a crit jersey i thought, im too lazy to google it