Inside the Legion Leadout - 2021 Chowchilla Criterium P/1/2

hey what's up welcome back to the channel guys first proper sanctioned race in a year super excited this is the chowchilla criterium pro 1 2 field and who's here uh everyone's here everyone's come out to race everyone's so excited to get back into it it's drawn out some huge names you have legion of los angeles arguably the best crit racing team in the united states you have a handful of professional racers lou clan parity trinity racing uh you have khs elevate wildlife generation pro so like legit pros at this race guys and then uh i'm on t mike's bikes we had a full squad nine riders you know granted two of my teammates had already raced the 35 field earlier in the day and they won it by the way that's pretty cool but um we came out with swinging we had nine guys and our plan was to to win obviously right duh we came to a race we pinned up we want to win but how are we gonna execute that plan with all these pros in this field well we wanted to force a selection and win from a reduced field and on team mike spikes we like to race aggressive on a course like today with uh these two chicanes a little bit of wind fortune favors the bolts so we wanted to stack the breakaway in our favor and win from reduced field so that was our first priority and we did that by the way so we got in the early breakaway at this point it's been brought back so this is when it gets chaotic right the first breakaway has been brought back everyone wants to join the next one with 25 kilometers to go that might be the winner and you can see what i'm talking about coming through these corners 32 miles an hour ripping through these corners still able to pedal through them too so so this is when you can really get separation i want to be on the winning side of that and that's why i'm up towards the point of the race right here in good company by the way with some of these legion guys but let's talk about my role in this race my job as the field sprinter was to not put my nose out in the wind not expend unnecessary energy my teammate sam that was the same idea for him he was going to be also sitting back in the field reaping the benefits of taking choice lines being in the draft and uh the other seven guys that we were with we're gonna go out there and try to get off the front and now we talked about in the case of a field sprint it's very unlikely for us to control the last few laps of the race and come over the top of legion because that is legion has built a team around this idea of executing a very well orchestrated lead out so if it came down to a field sprint our plan was to try and control it up until about one maybe two laps to go until legion takes over at mach 3 and they're going 40 miles an hour at which point sam and i would jump onto the coattails of the legion lead out and then try our best to come around the best sprinters in the country sounds a bit ambitious doesn't it but but don't forget our plan number one is to stack a breakaway win from a select group so let's dive into it and let's see where we're at all right just inside seven kilometers to go and where is the forward-facing camera guys i'm so bummed my gopro just decided to eat all the footage it died after about 15 minutes of recording fresh battery fresh card i don't know what to say but here's the good news we have amazing content creators uh greg beliera photographer extraordinaire and um this youtuber maybe you've heard of him vegan cyclist who hooked me up with some amazing footage so we're gonna get to see this whole thing play out from a completely different perspective so hang in there what's been going on so far okay so early breakaway we were represented it got brought back all the counter attacks went and then eventually a new breakaway was formed we had miles in it remember plan a was to stack a breakaway in our favor and miles is so fast he's so fit and we had full trust that miles was gonna be able to uh find a podium spot for himself the one problem we were facing is that also in that breakaway was tyler williams from legion uh former pro actually now he's still a pro legion's a pro team now and then also luke lamperti uh huge american hopeful i think he's only like 18 or 19 years old and then also in the breakaways john borselman aka diesel motor and you guys might remember him from the cherry pie crit video that i made last year and then lastly another pro because the breakaway wasn't stacked enough already and that's eddie huntsman from elevate khs [Applause] and tyler's right legion's not going to chase that back and neither are us on team team mike's bikes because we're both happy with the composition of that group we like our chances but the vegan bros the pink shoulders here ride bikes bro they have missed it and it's up to them to chase it back but it's at this point where legion has taken the front of the race with like six lead out guys and then mike spikes behind them we have assembled our lead out train with like our six guys and you might be wondering why is legion taking the front jeff i thought you said don't chase your teammates and it's true so legion isn't actually chasing their teammate and neither are we because remember our original plan was to take the front at about six to go what we're doing is we're setting a tempo that is kind of fast but not so fast that we're gonna chase back the breakaway and the point of this is to keep sprinters like myself in really good position not worried about fighting for the wheel taking comfortable lines you see i'm i'm low stress 144 beats per minute really low stress and just in case the breakaway does get brought back now we're positioned to be able to execute our plan b which is the field sprint and at this point i'm stoked because i'm thinking look it's been 90 minutes of hard racing if my heart rate is this low with just a handful of laps left and legion keeps rotating turns on the front then you know miles has his shot to win the race but we also want to practice this lead out and see if we can come over the top of of legion so i'm thinking you know if we can absolutely drill it with like one lap to go and come over the top of legion i mean nobody ever does that people don't come over the top of legion so i'm pretty excited about just the prospect of field sprinting up against these guys um even if even if it's not for the win you know because it's not every day you get to field sprint against national champions so fast forward to lap later still been chill up until this point still behind the legion lead out and um you see reichert now has moved into the sweeper position and um and for those of you who don't know the sweeper position is actually quite important so what he's doing right now is he's disrupting the vegan boys from from trying to contest my wheel and move up alongside us onto legion and also when we start the sprint the sweeper um chris in this case would would drop the wheel meaning that the sprinter behind would have to close down one extra bike length worth of distance so that's really important but all of a sudden look 600 watts so we just start to step on it now a thousand watts and i'm like uh what's going on i wasn't exactly sure what we were doing here but all of a sudden we're overtaking the entire legion lead out train on the right you see all six of them there and um and what they're doing is they're like oh thank you very much 32 miles an hour wasn't fast enough you want to go up to 36 by all means let us just slot in behind you and and and preserve our six riders and preserve our train meanwhile we're smashing on the front like we are getting after it coming through two laps to go this isn't a headwind too by the way guys 31 miles an hour like sure my heart rate is 163 beats per minute still pretty chill but you see we're already dropping riders that's because on the front even though i'm doing 350 400 watts they're doing like 560 600 watts that's the difference drafting makes and meanwhile legion cool calm and collected see lansi pants here in my rear cam he's leading five more teammates behind him and look it's not easy to get the timing right lead outs are all about timing and getting it so you're dropping off your sprinter at exactly that right moment at 200 meters to go at the front of the race and it's hard enough to get timing right in this sport by yourself let alone with to coordinate that effort with five other people it's it's ridiculous and that's why legion is the best in the country when it comes to crit racing they have the current national champion and that's because they have absolutely dialed the art of the lead out and this is a perfect example of that they're just waiting waiting waiting for that perfect moment to overtake and that's exactly what they do with about two kilometers to go they decide okay we can start ramping up the speed from this far out we have enough guys we have enough horsepower and we can lead our sprinters to 200 meters to go and that's when they step on it and this is the moment this is the moment when i man i wish my front camera was working first of all but here you have the national champion here you have teammate andrew dropping back after he took that monster pole by the way kudos to that but um you know legion says here hold my beer we're going to take the front now coming through one lap to go you can see the scrum you can see why it's so important to have a lead out and why just being calm and chill behind a teammate makes such a big difference my power is going to start spiking all over the place everyone's fighting me fighting me for my wheel the first guy who's really going to get tested is the guy in the light blue on the left here the wildlife generation rider um a pro a legit pro and man we had a really good elbow battle right here but coming into turn number one he's gonna take the inside on me and um i am gonna have to reluctantly give up that wheel which is corey williams who is the legion sprinter and that's what happens right here so now i'm one rider down which sucks because when you're going this fast uh one bike length is hard to make up but did you just notice who just came back into frame back from the dead and that's sam we're gonna get one more glimpse of him right here that's my teammate sam in the purple and he's yelling at me sam's like hey jeff i got one more poll left in me don't forget guys sam already raced and won the 35 plus one two three now he's back again in a 90 minute race in the last lap right up in the mix and he's going to give me uh one final pull here to make sure i remain in good position i don't have to fight with all these guys back here meanwhile two riders ahead of me here's what cory's experiencing really smooth effort right behind his brother national champion teammates pulling off and this is this is i mean it's a thing of beauty guys just look at this lead out that they execute it's just so perfect [Music] so getting a team out in front of you in a lead out situation like this is both a blessing and a curse right because on one hand yeah i'm getting help i'm not having having to cut through the wind by myself but on the other hand it's one more rider i have to pass on my way to try to beat the williams brothers and that's why i'm yelling very delicate words of encouragement to sam to let him know dude you gotta go early because not only do i have to pass sam i i then have to pass the wildlife generation rider i then have to pass the legion sweeper i then have to pass corey all into a headwind while he's up there doing 41 miles an hour so again i just can't compliment the legion guys enough on just how perfectly they executed this lead out and how well deserved their win was because by the way they won the bike race from the breakaway and they also took first and second in the field sprint third and ninth you know it's not a win so of course i have to complain but look at all the pros on that board made me feel better about my ninth and and really proud of miles for his third that's huge so hindsight this is what we do as bike racers right guys what could we have done differently in order to increase our chances to win this field sprint and obviously easy to say in hindsight but what if we did that same attack that we did it two and a half to go but instead we did it two laps later with a half a lap to go yes it would have been much more difficult because legion would have been up to 38 40 miles an hour at that point but what if makes you always makes you wonder after the race right so anyway thanks for watching guys if you like this video please consider subscribing it's totally free oh and uh thanks again to greg beliera tyler the vegan cyclist and nation's number one beast for providing the footage in the in the photos to help me tell the story catch you guys in the next one

Channel: NorCal Cycling

Views: 212,705

Rating: 4.9751039 out of 5

Keywords: cycling, criterium, tips, p/1/2, racing, strategy, gopro, win, sprint, leadout, crash, Pro cycling, bike, bikes, bicycles, bicycle, road bike, road bikes, American cycling, zwift, indoor cycling, road race, Tour de France, peloton

Id: l3TH1DDbKtQ

Length: 11min 39sec (699 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 07 2021