Here is a podcast with Justin spelling out what he is trying to do with Legion: https://www.richroll.com/podcast/justin-williams-563/
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18 in swimming is pro level already - only couple more years of competition ahead of them. But it is interesting as swimming is another âlow rewardâ sport when it comes to the money but still it is hugely popular among young people and it is hugely developed worldwide when it comes to infrastructure and talent nursing.
And from my local, European country - there is virtually no support for young people that want to start with cycling. No local clubs, coaching - nothing. Every city, even small has some swimming club, but cycling? Almost non existing. And I have never met anyone who wanted to be a cyclist but in my swimming club (started when I was 8) there were around 30 kids. And it was very small (40k people) city.
I donât think thatâs true. When the WSJ is picking things up, it means theyâre having a bigger impact.
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They are re picking it up because of Jason Gay, who wrote the piece. Otherwise, they wouldnât be interested in it.
I watched Vegan Cyclistâs video on the event and it looked very exciting. The only not-so-clever thing was that they started the race so late that the latter half was in the dark and it was extremely hard for me to figure out what was going on. And I reckon it wasnât what the riders wanted either.
But here are a few things he mentioned and that show how far back the UCI is:
- The excitement of the event was palpable. The riders were really hungry and judging by the video the riders were super fast. The course seemed like a basic four-corner crit to me (there was no course diagram in Vegan Cyclistâs video), but that can be exciting, too.
- Jerseys with numbers. Once you see it, you can never unsee it. I know, what a crazy idea. I hate having to put safety pins through my expensive jerseys and just giving people one number for their entire career is such an obvious solution, especially once you look to other sports.
- Inviting the best from all over the country is just such a great idea to create palpable excitement all over the country.
Someone asked me what Legion can do in the future, and a more obvious answer than âbecoming a UCI world tour teamâ is branch out in things like short track that are quite similar to crit racing. That way they could tap into the American MTB league, which seems to be much more popular than road riding at the US high school level.
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Coincidentally, one of the L39ion riders, Ama Nsek, placed 2nd in short track xc at US MTB Nats this year. It was also just a week after heâd placed 2nd in the RR and 5th in the crit at US Amateur Road Nats.
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Iâm not sure I understand your point. It was only in the WSJ because one of their writers wrote about it? How else would it be there? Does this NYTimes article not count because someone wrote it? https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/01/sports/justin-williams-cycling-L39ION.html
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Agreed. This would totally be an event Iâd want to watch. Or participate if they allowed peons like me to join in on the fun.
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Believe you just needed to be cat3 or higher to enter the open race (120 registered). Our Wed worlds crew was represented by a 23 yr old with a top 30, a 39 yr old with a top 10, and 55 yr old that hung on for 20 minutes before getting dropped. The average speed was something like 28.3mph. A flag at the top of the capitalâs rotunda was blowing north but at street level it was bouncing off the buildings and swirling back south.
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Damn I thought the 39 was quite catchy and given they grew up on 39th pretty creative to incorporate it into an E and a G. Also, I just searched L39ion and it yielded quite a bit. ??
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And if you donât like the numbers, typing âLegion cyclingâ returns a ton too.
I agree with him that long term the 39 might not be a great fit as things expand outside LA, but it doesnât make it harder to find them or information about them.
But thatâs kinda legionâs whole point. They donât want to grow outside of LA. They want to establish city based teams that compete on a national circuit. Just like this last race they envision a Miami team, a NorCal team, a New England team, etc. So that hopefully some state/regional loyalty can be built around them. So from that perceptive the 39 will always be a great fit as it makes the team even more LA based.
All these people talking about how legion needs to go to Europe and race have obviously never heard Justin talk about his long term vision.
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Jason Gay has a personal interest / background in cycling. He is able to push through stories like this because he knows how to pitch them to his editors.
Similar to Samuel Abt back in the dayâŚ.he had the best articles ever on the TdF and wrote for the NYT. As soon as he left the NYT, their coverage of the TdF dropped off the face of a cliff.
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True, but I think you will see the expansion outside LA in order to get that country wide team base growing and competing when no one else steps up. I could see a series of âLegionâ races around the country, with one of the competing teams being L39ion. I could be wrong, just my thoughts.
(Totally agree with you on people commenting who were not aware of the vision of Legion, what it rose out of, maybe not agreeing with that premise, etc., in the first place. Iâm sure thatâs very true for those who didnât live through it in the US. I do see this thread as full of people who are learning though, and thatâs a great thing!)
Echoing the point made by @Geronimo - the editors of these publications decide what they want to run.
The fact that Legion is making it into very non-cycling publications like the WSJ and NYT indicates they are having an impact outside the cycling world.
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I never said they werenâtâŚ.but I am simply pointing out the context in which they are receiving some of that coverage.
It is perfectly OK to appreciate what they are achieving while also understanding that some of the coverage they are receiving is due to the efforts of some writers who have a history within the sport and a personal interest in writing them.
Writers pitch their editors all the time on stuff they want to write about and editors sign off on it when they are pitched an angle they think will be well received.
When my brain sees âL39ionâ, it wants to think âLeNineIonâ or maybe skip the 39 and see LION. I think itâs just trying to be too clever for cleverâs sake. Maybe Iâm just old, not hip enough and donât get it. Iâve heard them explain the 39 once on a podcast but, not knowing LA well, it sort of went through one ear out of the other.
Their internet presence has improved but when I tried six months ago it was hard to even find the teamâs web site. If you search for âL39ionâ, you get a Rapha page as the first hit. I do see the teamâs site as the 2nd link now but six months ago, it didnât even show up.
Plus they seem to have nothing at: https://www.legionoflosangeles.com/
Site under construction. Maybe they donât even own it?
I realize that this is a fly by night organization run by Justin with probably little help.
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Youâre right with the first part there 
The 39 is because they grew up on 39th street. Iâve always thought it made for a clever logo using the nubmers for the E and G.
Honestly I donât think we can/should criticize them for anything theyâre trying to do. Of course theyâre not going to get it all right, and thereâs always going to be more/other ways to try and grow cycling. But they seem to be the only ones out there even TRYING. I think Legion and EF on the world tour side have got the right idea as to what it takes to expand the reach of cycling and to try and reach a new audience with it.
IMO it shouldnât even have to be a team trying to do this sort of thing. USA cycling should be the ones working to expand and grow cycling here in the US, but I guess theyâre a whole other discussion.
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Donât they race/ train in Cali? I would think Cali is just as hot as Northen VA, maybe not as humid. I was suprised that it was heat that stopped the legion train. IIRC he did sort of get dropped to the back on a restart after a crash.