The Red Bulletin April 2021 (US)

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a sponsorship from Specialized, he finished in the top 3 in a remarkable 30 out of 35 races, found immediate success in Red Hook criteriums and won national championships both on the road and in the criterium. For those who don’t know the criterium discipline well, these races involve multiple laps on a closed course. They typically last an hour or two— significantly shorter than a road race at the same level—and tend to be flat, relentlessly fast and full of sharp turns. “It’s a fast-moving, high-stakes chess match where if you make a mistake, you’re sliding across the ground in a millimeter-thick piece of fiber that does very little to protect you,” says Williams. “From the start I loved how the physical element reminded me of football. You know, when you’re playing wide receiver and you have a corner on you trying to jam you on the line; in a crit you often have to put a shoulder into somebody to slightly shift them. It’s a contact sport.” Colin Strickland has felt that shoulder. Now a winning gravel racer, Strickland used to compete against Williams in criteriums all over the country. “Justin’s assertive when he races—he knows what’s his and takes it, but he’s never a dick,” says Strickland. “There’s a culture of self-importance in U.S. racing culture but he’s not like that.” When asked to assess the strengths of the newest rider to strap on a Red Bull helmet, Strickland quickly outlines Williams’ physical gifts and his racecraft. “Physiologically, he’s got a knockout punch,” Strickland says. “He comes out of the last corner and he can throw on afterburners and punch it in a worldclass way. On the intangible side, he’s a master of navigating, brilliant at positioning his bike and body. So with 200 meters he’s in the winning position. He’s just a master of the craft of racing.” And yet, despite all his racing success, even with dozens of victories including two national titles, Williams ended his 2018 season wanting something bigger. “Winning all those races was fun, but I wanted to start a new chapter and share that experience,” he says. “It’s not enough for me to just do something on my own. I need to create something, to grant opportunities to people who I love that I know deserve it, while simultaneously putting criterium racing on the map.” This is how L39ion was born. There is a conventional, well-trod path for professional bike racers looking for results, money, fame and other markers of success: Join the biggest, best-funded, most prestigious team you can and leverage its resources to pursue common interests. It’s a system that has operated for decades, but generally speaking it hasn’t exactly served the interests of athletes like Justin Williams. That’s why Williams and his younger brother Cory—himself a super-talented crit racer—decided to start their own team. One that was focused on criteriums and had roots in their community and gave opportunities to people of color and otherwise exploded the stereotypes of how a racing team operates. Cory suggested the name Legion, and it stuck. “It was this perfect balance of something serious but unintimidating that I immediately “JUSTIN IS GIVING A WHOLE DEMOGRAPHIC AN ASPIRATION TO GET INTO BIKE RACING.” wanted to be a part of,” Williams says. “When we show up to races, it says that we’re not messing around, but it’s subtle enough where we can shape our own identity in using the word.” Williams has always had an interest in typography and design and he went to work to shape the team’s logo and identity to shape a stronger narrative. “Legion” became “L39ion” to reflect his family’s roots on 39th Street in South L.A. And the image of a lion was integrated into the branding of the squad—symbolizing both his childhood Alley Cats team and an icon of Rastafarian culture in Belize. The whole backstory and vibe was light-years away from the traditional aesthetic of European teams, where everyone wears a matching tracksuit to dinner. Anchored by the Williams brothers, the L39ion squad has a diversity that reflects the vitality of a big U.S. city like Los Angeles, a vitality that has been nearly absent in American bike racing culture. They also started a development squad called CNCPT—which assembles young Black and Hispanic athletes as well as some cool creatives into a racing team. Among many other things, Williams is making personnel decisions on both teams, building sponsorship relationships, managing schedules, executing content plans—all while trying to win races at the highest level. “Justin is literally giving a whole demographic an aspiration to get into bike racing,” says Strickland, who himself turned down a WorldTour opportunity to chart his own path in the U.S. domestic scene. “If younger athletes don’t see someone who looks like them, they likely don’t consider a sport. Justin is such a selfless, positive person—and he’s a winning machine—and he likes to spread the gospel of cycling. Being a Black athlete in our sport is a rarity, and he could help change that.” Of course, in this game, having good intentions and a cool story will only take you so far—the concept only takes flight 28 THE RED BULLETIN
Williams founded the L39ion team, lined up sponsors and created the team’s branding.
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