Or Chris Froome or Peter Sagan
Iāve never even heard of Drive to Survive. Possibly because I have zero interest in auto racing?
But I guess the point is if Iāve never even heard of something some of you are saying is very big, then you can imagine how few car racing people have ever heard of #insert anything about cycling other than Lance here#
To get what L3gion is doing you need to look at both Cory and Justin Williams Instagram feeds. Cory regularly posts kick ass helmet cam race videos and Justinās feed has a great cycling meets hip hop hero vibe. The both have well over 100,000 followers. (for comparison - more than twice what TrainerRoad has but Peter Sagan has 1.3 million . . . ). L3gion make cycling look cool both on and off the bike. Sure there is a long way to go but they are doing a huge part by doing such a great job marketing themselves, their team and the sport.
They are getting great sponsorships not just because of their on the bike performance but also because of their great social media presence. This is 21st century sports promotion and the rest of US cyclists and cycling teams should be looking at the whole picture, not just how to beat L3gion in the next race. Everyone else needs to match them in the off the course stuff if the sport is going to really grow.
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Ok? What are you pointing at? I applauded them for their promotion of the sport, but my guess is that itās probably very confined to those of us who are active in the sport, and not outside of it. Thatās not an insult to them, itās just what I suspect to be true.
My point was that they donāt have a responsibility to grow the sport, however, they seem to be. And thatās good.
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Thatās pretty much their mission statement though
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Awesome. Kudos to them.
L39ION of LA was created to advance the sport of cycling, eliminate boundaries, and promote diversity, representation, and inclusion. We want to grow the sport in America and let the American masses know that you donāt need to conform to be a part of the cycling community.
The team is devoted to using our platform to give back to the younger generations and showcase criterium racing in a way where athletes can make a good living competing at home in the US.
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And thatās what they are trying to change. If bikes races are only advertising to cyclists bike races will never be a thing in the states. If they can get bike races to be advertising to all the urbanites in the 10 largest urban centersā¦ thatās winning.
At the race I had a couple of people ask me to explain the race format. They only knew it was a cycling event from all the open amateurs warming up on the course.
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Vegan Cyclist did a short interview with Justin before the race this weekend. His words: āthey want to bring excitement to racing, see what works in cycling and what doesnāt, see if cycling can build heroes; not everyone will relate to him and people wonāt like him, his hope is that within the 100 guys in the peloton, there will be riders that appeal to different people, different demographics.ā
By all accounts it was exciting for the riders and the people who were at the race. Iām in Canada and I was as excited to watch this race (on a frigginā helmet cam in the dark) and see who won, as I was to watch the cx yesterday and see who topped the Koppenberg.
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First I want to say that the word āL39ionā is dumb marketing. Nobody can say it or search for it on the internet. Really, they should drop the 39 and just be Legion of LA or whatever is easier to market and find.
Legion is a business. They seem to want to create a cycling racing brand / business that actually makes money and pays the riders a salary instead of teams constantly trying to rub two nickels together to make a quarter and paying riders zilch.
Cycling teams have been poor at making themselves into sustainable brands. They change names and sponsors every year. They barely market themselves. They never gain traction as an entity. And then they typically go out of business.
The thing is, kids donāt ride bikes much anymore. I live in a neighborhood with tons of kids but do I see any out and about riding bikes and looking for something to do? I see one or two occasionally. Iām sure the rest are playing video games after school. Itās just the way it is.
When I was a kid (age 55 now), we came home from school, got our bike, and then left again. Itās crazy to consider how much I trained when I was 10 years old - walk to and from school, play on the play yard 3-4 times per day, and then get on my bike after school and ride wherever for an hour+. Itās like I was doing 10 hours a week of aerobic endurance. Kids these days? Not so much, sadly.
I live in a neighborhood with a ton of kids riding past in the morning to school (K thru 6), and home again in the afternoon. Parents ride with the younger ones. May not be typical all over the country but there are a lot of bikes on the road in California.
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Iām literally not arguing you here. I think youāre honing in on something I said and making something out of it. But I canāt tell what or why. Is my read on them that their reach is primarily limited to cyclists wrong?
My hope is that they draw more attention to the sport and in turn get more people on bikes, however, dominating the US criterium scene is a start, but I donāt think itās the answer. However, at this point it seems like L39ION is the best thing America has going for it in terms of cycling.
He might be doing just as much to grow the sport running at the back of the pack as the L3gion guys are at the front 
If competitive cycling is going to grow in the US, a big chunk of that growth is going to be sparked by social media exposure. Absent that, bike racing as a spectator event is literally just relying on people randomly wondering into a race. Since they arenāt going to hear about the sport anywhere else. Social media exposure plus the real key - establishing local racing clubs that cater to kids - is how this sport will grow.
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Same in Minnesotaā¦to an extent. Thankfully we are a very cyclist friendly area.
However, what kind of frustrates me is that the only way I found out about our 6-12th grade mountain bike club team was by happenstance, running into a 6th grader wearing the club team jersey. Itās not advertised anywhere on any of our local school districts website(s). However, every fall and spring we get a sign up letter in the mail for the local youth run clubā¦
It definitely wasnāt like what I was used to grownin up in the early 90ās. EVERY kid owned a BMX bike and was ripping the local trails. But we didnāt really have screens back then like we do know.
From what I understand, one of the big reasons that Legion lost at the Armed Forces race was the heat. I remember Justin said that he couldnāt hang with the group because of the normal fast speed coupled with the heat. It was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit and the race was at peak afternoon. Multiple riders dropped out due to heat stroke.
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Group rides are how I find out about a lot of thingsā¦
Lot of selfies with Vegan Cyclist in my Saturday Strava feedā¦ Was standing next to him at the race for about 5 minutes, and my friend Debbie made a point of talking to him.
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Wonder if he told her he was veganā¦I kid.
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LOL it was loud, and I was ready to bore him with stories of what happened to my oldest when she went vegan during freshman year in the dorms. Pro tip - have a well stocked kitchen if you go vegan.
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Getting kids involved is the way to grow competitive cycling.
The US dominates in swimming because it has a huge youth development pipeline. USA Swimming has 325,000 members, the vast majority of whom are kids under 18 (many much younger) on local swim teams. My little suburb has a population of 6000 and there are 190 kids on the summer league team run by our rec center in a league with 10 teams that between them have 1200 kids competing. Most of those kids wonāt even go on to swim in high school much less swim in college but around half the kids go on to join USA Swimming clubs and swim year round.
And the summer league swimming teams like my local one are a level BELOW USA Swimming - imagine a cycling development program where 1200 kids in your city are getting exposed to bike racing BEFORE they even got to a USA Cycling sanctioned level club or race. And this happens all over the US with swimming. And that is how the US wins all those swimming medals.
I imagine cycling in Belgium or other European countries being like swimming in the US. A huge number of kids get some coaching and racing experience on local clubs and the cream from that gigantic pot rises to the top.
Getting people to watch bike races is important but cycling in the US will not grow much if there is not a serious increase in opportunities for kids to race and get some coaching.
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Completely agree.