Man today I have a special guest and an important podcast
Well man today I have a special guest and an important podcast. Today's guest is Corey Williams and we touch on some really interesting topics and then one really important topic, it's racism in sport. It's an absolute whopper of a podcast before I get into it. Let's cue that intro. The big question is this, how do we use cycling as a tool to improve our health, our happiness and our longevity. That is the question and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Walsh and welcome to the Roadman Podcast. Roadman welcome back to another Roadman Suitlin podcast. Today's or should I say this week's feature Lent guest interview episode is none other than a writer who's making waves all across the world at the moment. He's become synonymous with cycling and the Black Lives Matter movement and where those two intersect. His name's Corey Williams. If he needs an introduction, he's one of the most famous riders that's blown up all over our social media at the moment. He is the spearhead along with his brother Justin Williams in the team that's making tracks out of LA called Legion at the moment. He's a brand ambassador for Rafa, specialized and I think Zwift soon to be announced. Fascinating chat that goes a million different directions, but we finish off talking about racism in sport. And I think at one point in the interview, I summed up kind of my feelings on it that, you know, we can disagree on this podcast about a lot of things. We can disagree about my interpretation of tactics. We can disagree about politics. We can disagree about sport and agendas. But if we disagree about racism, I'm not your friend anymore. We're not friends. And that's where this podcast goes and cycling for a long time has had a soft line around racism. And the more and more we talk on this, the more I think that it just needs to be a hard line. Either you're vocally against this or you're not and you're not so it. There's just no real effort anymore. There's just not. We've moved too far. It's a fascinating interview and honestly it got me just some seriously long hours of introspection on the bike about where we're going as a culture and the black lives movement all across the states and the important security and his brother Justin at the forefront of this team, Legion and with a new mandate of inspiring diversity across. So it's a fascinating interview. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to stop Wafflin and I'm going to head into the Corey interview. But before I do, I'm going to ask you to head on over to patreon.com. The link is in the bio. It's patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore watch. Patreon is how I keep this podcast on the road covers the costs. If you're getting value out of it, if you're, if this is raising questions like today's podcast, I think it's valuable. I hope you think it's valuable. If you do, please buy me the price of a point of beer once a month. That keeps the show on the road for us on this end. And I love the idea of reciprocity. And for those who do buy me a point of beer once a month, you're gonna get in return the secret podcast once a month from me. And the secret podcast is where we get all your questions answered. It's a Patreon only members podcast with its own private feed. So once a month, I'll give you my best stuff in there. Guys, I'm not gonna put this one off anymore because it's a much anticipated interview and I know a lot of people have been looking forward to it, including myself re-listening to it. So here we go. It is Corey Williams. Corey Williams, welcome to the Roadman Podcast. Dude, thank you for having me. Corey, I feel like I am the whitest man you're ever going to talk to. I needed to level up my street feel a bit. Now Corey, it's an honor of me following you and your brothers. You're only for quite a while now. We were just shutting off air. We almost overlapped in a team for the same year. Yeah, we were on the Stullas. I think were you a year before me or after? Yeah, you know, I wrote 20 tour deign and then I provisionally agreed to come back for 2014 and I just ducked and head for head for Ireland. Oh, man. Yeah, you missed this. We were out one year behind you. You know what? I've never told this story and fucking I hope Andy Frey our old director is not listening. I fucking I cracked so much in 2013. I was just I think I was meant to go out to like cascade classic I was getting ready in Toronto, my girlfriend was living in Toronto, so I was basing myself there and getting the bus or shit up and down.
Was pretty grim. Real rock and roll stuff on the public transport
It was pretty grim. Real rock and roll stuff on the public transport. But I was getting bused down from... Cascade Classic got cancelled, but two days notice they changed up my roster and they're like, oh, you got to come to Chicago for some bullshit crit. I'm like a 70 kilogram rider and I'm not having much fun in these crits. So I was like, fuck this shit, like, shit in Chicago with all these 90KG sprinters. Yeah. So fuck, I can't even believe I'm telling this story because I've never told this to anyone. So I was on the bus from Toronto on the way down and I just literally got off the bus and I was just like, fuck this. I got off in the middle of nowhere, called my, the bus driver's like, you can't even get off here, it's not a stop. I was like, fucking let me off, give me my boy. I pulled the shit out. shit. And I sat on the side of the road and I was just like, what the fuck am I doing with my life? And I called my girlfriend, I was like, come pick me up. And she's like, but you need to get to your race, you're not going to get thrown in there kicked off the team or something. So I told Andy and Matt Corrin or other directorists like, dude, they wouldn't let me cross the border. My passport. I was like, did my passport wasn't accepted? Because it was like, we went through the washing machine or something. Oh my god. Yeah. That was a pretty low moment. It goes like that sometimes man. Cycling sometimes get really tough and you know we we've all been at that moment where you can't do it anymore. You know I got a text on that same trip down. It's like a buddy of mine and he said live in the dream. I was just like fuck this is not the dream. So a lot of people don't know how like tough this is man. Like you're barely getting any money and you're just like like you said on a bus down from Toronto to Chicago, bro It's like grim Well, I wrote a blog on it I'm almost trying to find it sounded on to you because I can when I read back the blog it takes me Transports me back to that moment I had a fat girl on one side of me and a fat guy on the Twitter side of me and the dude Sparcked opened this thing a doughnuts and he was dripping cream and shit all over himself I was sandwiched in between the two of them and it was just so sweaty and horrible. Oh my god I can't remember what's that bus ride? It must be like seven eight hours. It's a long bus ride Was it like a Greyhound or something? Yeah Greyhound Greyhound number 11. Oh my god I didn't actually take a Greyhound from was it Chicago? Yeah, I took a Greyhound from Chicago to LA and it was it was nasty bro I was reading before the podcast. I know a lot of your story, but I know your story in recent years. I didn't know some of the backstory. I didn't know your dad's was quite a good bike rider in Belize back in the day. Yeah, he was all right. We do this. We do this big bike race over there. It's called cross country. It's like 144 miles. And like it's like one of the biggest events in the country. My dad's been like fourth, fifth, But he's never won so like it's like his dream for us to go down there and win it and Justin's won it two times already So I'm nice. We're ready. We're ready one of them Was your dad's did he push you guys into cycle? No, actually he he told us that it was a tough sport and if we're gonna quit we can't do it Yeah, I've seen some quote from I'm not sure you know the way you see stuff on low in half It's not true I've seen some quote where he said like this is not a game if I'm gonna invest you guys need to be serious this is real money when he was talking about bikes. Yeah, actually, that's what happened. We weren't even able to get real bikes until we were on the trainer for two months. Holy shit. He had a bike and he put seat all the way down. He's like, all right, you ride every day for two months and then you can get into it. That's pretty good because I don't know. I think it's got a voice. I see so many people coming into the sport and it's almost like, you know what? I've done this in golf where I taught, oh, you know, I'm going to play golf. That looks good for one. And then I bought like really expensive golf clubs.
Completely, I completely shit. And I've never used them since
And completely, I completely shit. And I've never used them since. Like I used them twice. So he's there to answer pretty good part. I've actually never been to LA. And so my opinion of LA and that of probably a lot of our listeners that are UK or Ireland based are even around Europe. It's the LA is particularly card dominant culture and very urban. What's that like to get into cycling in a card dominated culture like that? It was tough, man. I lived in the middle of LA, so like for me to get to a bike path was like 30 minutes. And then you get on the bike path, you ride another 30 minutes and then you're in Santa Monica. Then you got to ride another like 30 minutes to PCH and then you're on PCH. So like it ended up being like an hour and a half of of your ride just being like trashed by lights and cars. Can you break the lights or is it like on a frowned upon? Nah, bro. It's like super, super mainstream. You'll definitely get hit by a car if you like blast it through a light. And what's the environment like for grown up? Is it like, I remember when I started cycling, I'm from the city as well, but from Dublin, I'm not comparing Dublin to LA here to a boring car. But it's still a city. So I remember when I got started, I was so self-conscious about like wearing light ground cycling kit because nobody wore it. I used to put on like gym shorts over my cycling kit, especially like the local football team or soccer team or in case anybody seen me. What's it like the challenges for you getting into cycling over there? You know, it's crazy. I was like, man, I've been going to races since I was three years old. Like it never was like weird to me. I actually played football. I started playing football when I was seven. And like we were tied to two, but it wasn't like cycling tights. But I never was self-conscious about him. And like people, some people would say some shit on the side of the road and I'd just like roll past. Like, yeah, whatever. Was your brooder is a couple of years older than you? Yeah, he's four years older than me. So was he gonna trailblaze and then taking a lot of that shit for you? Yeah, probably. Probably a lot of shit that I don't know about. Yeah, he started racing the year before me. What was your sort of intro or your turn in point where you said, you know what I'm gonna give cycling. Like timeline wise, I'm trying to think, did you finish school and jump straight into cycling? Or where was it at? Dude, I like saw a play football, I ran track and like those were during the off season of cycling, right? So like I was like, all right, well now there's off season of football. So I wanted to do something else too. So I just got into racing bikes when I was what, nine years old. Were you academic in school? How did you bother with school? Yeah, I finished school. Was it like, you know, I know for me, when I was in school, it was a complete afterthought for me. I played soccer. We call it football, but like, I just never went to school. Like I go to school with my bag, but I just have football boots, like nets. I just get changed in the park and go play football all day. I was just, I was just, I was just, me, bro. My parents will kill me. The trick was I started forging my dad's I'm open and open some serious fucking stories tonight. I started I started forging my dad's signature really, really early. So they assume my writing was his right and I got away over for years. It was awesome. Yeah, now my parents were so where we lived actually was like it was pretty dangerous in LA and we couldn't really we couldn't even go outside on like the weekdays we'd have to wait wait until the weekends we'll be able to have school and you talking gang gang's dangerous or traffic dangerous gang like gang dangerous right talk to us about that because we don't have the gang culture over here how's that how's that working oh dude it was it was pretty it was pretty crazy like we we grew up it was like gang members where we lived and like shootings and all kinds and crazy shit. So we really had to stay inside. And that's why my parents put us in like a lot of sports. Is that a driver? Like all the time for you? Like I know for me, I kind of, I guess, like people always say to me now like, Oh, how come you're pursuing what you're doing with the podcast?
Because I just go, you know what? Like I'm fucking white on the dudes
And because I just go, you know what? Like I'm fucking white on the dudes. Like the safety net's pretty high for me. If this all goes so I'm still gonna land pretty high. I'm not not gonna be home six months. Like, but is that something where, you know, we're gonna get into some of the great stuff because I know it's so if you're super passionate about what, yeah, doesn't feel like that safety net is calibrated in a different place for you and me. Yeah, I mean, for me, like, now I have enough followers on Instagram where like, I can just get paid from that. You've got the coolest tell people what your Instagram handle is, decoules Instagram handle. Nations number one beast I actually came up with the name when I was like 15 years old after I won a national championship And are you monetizing Instagram now? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, amen That's that's the way you make money now man. Like everyone's thinking like you just raised bikes, but bro Getting paid proposed. That's that's where it's at. Yeah I was gonna bounce on for this later because I try to too I'm not sure if you had a chance to listen back, but I tried to sign in garrens on the podcast last week I'm, Garren's is obviously for anyone who's listening and I'm sure you know, his plumber is curable for anyone listening. He's one like the lance and rainbow Lee has passed on Lee. Yeah. Yeah. Stages in sort of well to the zero, even more the yellow jersey in the tour. But I was chatting to him about the broken cycling culture. And now when I'm putting the sort of business hat on, and I suppose you guys have boat hats on and that's why you're unique. But yeah, I just look at it as a sponsor and go, what are you sponsoring a cycling team? Like CCC. What aim, my fuck? Because the writers don't care about giving a return on investment to the sponsors. Yeah, that's why we're struggling. But you guys are super plugged in to giving a return on investment to your sponsors. Like, yeah, dude, and I've been like, I've been on that type of thing. Like, before social media even took off, I understood the value of giving something back to the sponsor. And that's why we are where we are now. I was riding with a buddy earlier on and I could name Remko, Evan Paul, Tajé, Pogacha, I could name the top 10 young riders in the world and this dude does not know who they are. I was chatting to him on the podcast and he's like, oh I've got Corey Williams on later. He's like, fuck, you got Corey Williams on the podcast? Hey, that's a sir. Isn't that crazy? He's a dude in Ireland and he's into bikes but he's not into pro cycling. out of Saiklin. He's just into the love of Saiklin and following stories. I think that's what you guys are, your storytellers. Yeah, I mean, that's what we pride ourselves to be like when we go into these sponsorships, people actually understand what they're getting back. It's an absolutely awesome job, but I want to circle back before I dive too far into it. I don't want to talk about, was Sea Lance or Saiklin? How did you pronounce that team? silence silence. Was that one of your your big break? So actually before it was silence, it was an Encyclo Cannondale and I was on that team. And that was that was the first year like I actually started being good. And I was just reading I didn't even notice that didn't end well for you and your brother, Justin. Oh, yeah. You have to talk to me. Sure, yeah. So basically I was on Encyclo Cannondale, which was silence before the big sponsor came on. And I was their main guy. I won every race for two months straight. I beat the best pros in America in the stage race. And then like, you know, I had to beg for my brother to get on silence the next year. And they were like, oh, we don't want it to be the Williams show. And I was just like, I think my brother is one of the fastest guys in America. Like, what do you mean you should be happy to get them? So I ended up getting them on the team. We had a great year. Our team finally started like leading it out and we like actually came into our own so like At the end of the year I like crashed a bunch It was like one of those time periods So you know everyone goes through it like you crash a lot in one year and I hit the deck like four times in one month And I was like do I really want to do this? You know like I was actually I had done in 2013 with a Stella's like I crashed I've got a funny story.
Raced a del Rey del Rey beach
I raced a del Rey del Rey beach. I like Del Rey beach. Yeah, I raced that one. Do you race that one in 2010? I didn't go but I heard about that one. Yeah, so I raced that one and it was like a night time or getting dark like all them ones. Yes, like you getting there. But I hit a corner and I dude crashed on from me. I just, you know, plowed into him. I went straight over the barrier into crowd. There was like these four girls sitting down having dinner and drinks. I went into their dinner table. I Braked dinner table break all their shit out on the ground like my collarbones broke but I don't know it at this stage. Yeah, so I'm just on the ground and everyone's like, oh my god, holy shit. They're like, oh, can we help? Can we help? And I was like, oh, can you just get me a drink? She's like, are you serious? And I was like, yeah, can you get me a whiskey? I stayed there there to like 1 a.m. drinking whiskey with them. But the team didn't even know I crashed. So the director had lost their shit looking for me. Yeah. They thought I got abducted or something in the bike race. You just on the ground with a broken collarbone drinking. So what happened at the end of that surveillance season? Yeah, so basically they wanted Justin to sign a contract and Justin was basically waiting for me to get my contract before he signed his and then basically what ended up happening he was taking too long they got it kind of got pissed off at him and they were like you know what we're not gonna sign Corey so I got the boot bro I got the boot in like November and this is like the time when all teams have already signed writers so I really got like put on my ass so that was nearly was that nearly the end of the row for you? No, because like I said, my dad already put this thing in me where like, this is a tough sport. You're gonna have tough moments, but you gotta keep going, right? So I don't give a shit man. I was like, I was upset about it, but you know, I talked to another pro team, which was a elevate. And I got on that team, luckily, because I knew the guy that ran the team. And you think at the time it was just a straight up decision for them that they didn't want, Was it a personality class show? What was going on? What's the story with that narrative? We don't want the William. It's not the William show. I don't know. I never understood that honestly. Like, I don't know what it was because like at the end of the day me and Justin, we worked so well together. Like we are both sprinters, but we're different type of sprinters. Like I'm stronger than he is, but he's faster than me. So we always complimented each other. looking this soy what's it called? Soylans? What a stupid name. What is that even? It's a it's a they do like so this is a problem with cycling too right? You have these companies spending a million dollars and people don't even remember what what the company is but they do security for like internet or your computer or some shit. Well we were saying this sooner day on the podcast. Like, do you know what NTT is or CCC? No, I do not. I have not got a clip. I watch it. I don't have daily podcast in sort of France. So I don't every single day. I have not got a clue what NTT is. But I don't know, man. Doesn't that show you how broken the shit is with sponsorship? Yes, it does. It is crazy. So from sealands, philosophy and timeline wise, what you're doing like career hoylikes between does and getting onto this new lesion. So so so that uh, that led another fire in me when I got, when I got the boot. So I actually met that team. I met them the first race they came out to and Justin was still on the team and he got dropped in front of me with like a half lap to go. I chased him down. I caught them in the last corner and I beat them. And I was just like fuck off. The wounded animals dangerous thing. Bro, I had a great year that year too. I won. Damn, what did I do that year? I can't remember because those two years I was on Elevate. So kind of getting them both mixed up. And then you moved across to Moya, I'll go on a Stellis. How'd you get on with the guys there? Actually, I was before, that was before, or in cycle Canada actually, it was 2014. Oh, you're 2014, 2015 on Estelas.
No, 2014. I actually came here half way through the year
No, 2014. I actually came here half way through the year. And that fell apart so fast in the end. Because I remember looking, did you write the World Time Trial Championships? No. No, man. Because I remember looking at them, because I would have been a decent enough. Because I know 20-terre day and I think I was only one of two riders that gave a time trial bike to... I know people listening to this are probably gone like seriously, you didn't even get a time trial bike. But these are some fake ass teams, man. Like there's only two of us on the team and I had to beg for that time trial bike in my contract. I was straight up like I'm not signing unless I get a time trial bike because I was like, I'm not buying my own time trial bike. This is ridiculous. Yeah. So they were basically like, well, you can just use your road bike with clip-ons. And I'd said, pretty good time trial results the year before. And I was like, I'm not like, this isn't happening. So talk to me about Legion now because I I suppose Legion is, it's where I want to get to, and I suppose it's what you're best known for now. And it seems like this crazy concept to try and build a team yourself, and Roy for the team, and do a sponsorship for the team. Yeah, I mean, it's just stuff like this podcast awareness stuff. There's a lot of work, but you know, like the year before we started this team, I was on Elevate and you know how the conti level is it's like bare bones. like they expect so much from you exactly and they pay you shit, right? So we got tired of that Justin already wrote by himself and he was telling me to quit the team like halfway through the year and I'm like, nah, you know, I want to, you know, finish the contract and get it done, right? So after that I was like, all right, we're gonna start our own team. And I didn't believe it was gonna turn into what it turned into. Oh, Corey, I need to get you guys over to Ireland for a race next year. Oh yeah, we have big plans next year. So we'll see you in a little bit. We'll chat off podcast. We got a UCLA 2.2 race over here. It's pretty cool. Wow. But I don't know, your brother might struggle. I think you can climb a bit better than him from what I hear. Yeah, I can. But so legions of team dedicated to just straight off your soil dedicated to increasing diversity and encouraging inclusion. Talk to me about what that means. Yeah, I mean, growing up, there wasn't a lot of people that look like me racing at the highest level. So like how can you see yourself doing it if there's no one there, right? So we kind of like really felt bad, like not being able to look up to many people. And we just kind of want to be that, turning to those people that kids look up to. We have something over here that's similar. It's sort of, it's around, I'm actually back racing the last 12 months. One of the things I'm doing, I'm pointless on the tandem trying to qualify for the Olympics a moment. So, well, there were world championships in Toronto on the track. And we're quite a tracking, probably a coin toss if we get picked or not, but everything's pushed back a year. So the application window doesn't close now until nearly May next year. But there's a marketing campaign around here. It's more than a marketing campaign. Sorry, that didn't do it, just it's sort of a movement. It can't see me, can't be me. And the idea that if there's no female role models, if there's no ethnic diversity, if there's no visually impaired, if there's no handicapped people to look up to, someone else coming behind just thinks, you know, well, I can't do this. Like, just no one that's ever done this before. It's just an unpaved road, man. You know, it just seems so impossible. And you know what? Here's a, here's a, not a funny story, but one just sticks in my mind. I've almost never experienced racism in Ireland. Like, I'm sure people are going to light up my DMs and say it's all over the place. But it just, you know, I've a, and like, I don't do a lot of podcasts. I ride my bike, you know, there's not a lot of interaction there. I'll find that. But I remember being out in the US and it was the first time where I mean, it was like, it was like, we grew up watching a lot of US television and we watch a lot of US movies. And I remember watching Deliverance and Deliverance is set in, I think, Carolina.
We were in Carolina for a training and camp on a beautiful part of…
We were in Carolina for a training and camp on a beautiful part of the world to try and but we were there we came down off some climb and we stopped in this like hokey-pokey like convenience store to refill our bottles so people I'm going in and I'm the first dude going in and the store owner says to me can you take off your shoes coming in and I'm just kind of like looking around going like literally the entire floor like was worth like twenty dollars like yeah the store was falling apart like like so I'm looking I'm gonna reel my socks walking on this dude's or it was that bad. So I get to the counter and he says to me like, so hey, hey guy, where are you from? And I was like, oh, I'm from Ireland. So he had no interest in me. And so he gets to the next guy. I think it was like Ryan or something, everyone the other guy is. And he's like, hey guy, where are you from? And I think your man said, New York or wherever he was from. And he's like, who's the president up in New York? And we were all just looking slightly confused. Yeah. And then we're like, well, it's the same dude as the president down here, Barack Obama. And he's like, I didn't vote for no Negro president. Yeah. And then we were just like, we need to get the fuck out of here. And that was the first time I was just like, this, like what's going on? Like, these people actually exist. And the funny part is, right? You said you're on this team, you're trained in the middle of nowhere. and imagine me walking in that store. Oh, dude. Like, it would not be funny, like it. Exactly. Like, and that's like the biggest problem. Like, a lot of the times we're on these teams, like, people don't understand that we can't just be staying in a host house in Alabama. It's like, I, we're talking at offer to start, like, I started out my sort of full-time cycle and career when I moved to France. And I know I felt a massive sense of isolation living in France. I didn't speak the language. I had no friends there. Culturally, we're very different from the French. And I felt completely isolated. But I can only imagine then when you take all those things, but you put in the fact that you're a different skin color as well. Most just. Yeah. And that's why I cycle in Israeli tough, man. And that's why we're creating our own lane. like we love racing in America, like even though America is not great, we at least have people that talk our language because it's just that much worse when you don't talk the language. You're already like a different skin color and like everyone's like looking at you weird. I was saying it was a quote from you or your brother saying you need to work 10 times harder when you're black. Oh yeah. You think that's true? Yeah. I believe so. especially in this sport. Have you like directly experienced stuff like you're talking about like the house housing or that's a tough one to join so fast, host housing? Actually, thank God, no, I haven't gone into any host housing that had like racist people, but you know, I only imagine what people think when I actually go into their house. You know, you never know. It's just, it's so crazy. for me, Corey, and I know it's the first time we've chatted about this. And yeah, it's tough to get your head around, as you would think at this stage, we've just moved so far as a society that this stuff is just, it's banished, that it's completely irrelevant. You know, like, I don't think that, like, you know, I think, you know, one of my buddies had a tweet up, And I think it summed it up nicely for me where he said, we can disagree about sport, we can disagree about politics, we can disagree about religion. But if we disagree about racism, we're not friends anymore. Yeah, yeah, that's how I feel as well. And I was like, you just can't. I wanna talk a little bit about, and if you don't wanna talk about this, fine, let's totally hit me on a bypass. Quinn Simmons. Oh, yeah. So funny thing is I got to talk to him. He, we actually had to run in one of his coaches. And there was a thing where I was, I was saying that I never got a chance to ride for the national team, even though I was top five at crit nationals every year and top 20 in the road race. Like I never got a chance to race for the national team. And he went off or the guy was like, The coach said some stupid shit and was a and Quinn commented on there like, if you're not good enough, you're not good enough.
Just gave people some context
I just gave people some context. Quinn Simmons is, is he the current under 20 trade world champion? Yes. No, junior. Sorry. Junior. Sorry. Yeah. So, uh, and he is riding for a trick and he's actually suspended at the moment where we get into that in seconds. Yeah. And was it, was there a beef between you and him? Actually, I mean, I guess we had his jersey on the wall and I threw it in the trash. Yeah, so basically, I don't know where it came from, man, because we actually liked that kid. We had these little lion chains and he actually, we gave them one. So we were like, cool. So I had no clue where this all came from. Is it a race thing or is it just, you know, I have friends of mine, you know, not friends of mine. who are just dicks. It's not a race thing. Like they're white, but they happen to be dicks. They could be black, they could be Chinese, they could be Spanish. They're still dicks. Is it a personality thing or is it a race thing? For me, I think he's just ignorant, honestly. I don't think it shouldn't be a race thing because I don't feel like there's enough black people in his life to make him racist, or he doesn't deal with black people enough, but you never know. Like at first, when he was talking to me, It wasn't a racing, he was just being an ignorant asshole. But then he put that whole like, Donald Trump thing with the black hand. I was like, it's kind of racist. Like you really have to go out of your way to put the black hand. You've got to scroll pretty far down the corner. Yeah, it's the black hand. It's the far end of your little emoji spectrum. And yeah, I'm not sure if he's just a dumb kid. Like I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, I would hope that as well, but then when, I don't know, we get a lot of US news and media over there and, you know, I'm not political. I don't even think you need to be political to think, you know, I have to. I don't think there's a fucking idiot like, yeah. But a lot of the supporters seem like they fall into that corner. Idiot have no brain mold as well. Do you know what that's the cool thing about having a podcast and it's your own podcast on the internet. You can say whatever you want. You're not shutting me off. Yeah. And then that's the problem too. I don't really get the whole like the team. It's like kind of a team thing like you're a Republican or a Democrat. Why can't you just have common sense and like understand that he's a racist asshole? Yeah, it's absolutely insane what's going on. And I think when you just pair that mess just to Quinn Simmons to you with the Black hand emoji, with some of his crazy politics, you just climb in an early job, not jump to the conclusion, you connect the dots that this kid has a racist problem with her. Yeah, that's what I feel. Yeah, I don't know. I think Trek, I'd like to see Trek holding them up as an example and, you know, they have suspended them. I think that's the next thing, because like after the whole incident with me, he like apologized and I was like, ah yeah, maybe, because he told me he didn't know that the guy was talking about me, but it was pretty clear that it was about me. So I was like, all right, cool. And then, you know, it got on with my life. I'm not gonna hold on to that. And then like this stuff pops up and I'm just like, what, like are you trying to ruin your career? I don't get it. And he's a good, he's a good boy-crotter. Yeah. Like this is the thing. But I don't know, I just feel like they need to draw a harder line on this shit. Like Giovanni Moscon should not be a boy-crotter. Well, yeah, I mean, people talk a big game, but like are you willing to fire dudes over that shit? And that's the problem is you are. I just think if Mosgon was a shit writer, he'd be gone. Oh, 100%, but he's a good bike. He can pedal a bike and that's, you know, they want that. Do you follow Yani Brackovich? I think I did at one point, I'm not sure. So Yani's a really interesting dude. I had Yani on the podcast. Probably slightly, I'm a few years older, you, Yanny's background is interesting. You probably know someone at a race, he won like, he had a dolphin and he was on radio shock with Armstrong and stuff. But he's a super interesting story. I talked to him on the podcast and at moments I was like, Holy shit, is he actually saying this?
He was talking about how he had an eating disorder all through his…
He was talking about how he had an eating disorder all through his career. And during the dolphin, like he was making himself get sick after stages and then going and attacking Contador in the Alps like the next day. Crazy, crazy story. But actually have my phone here and pull up the tweet. Yani is a good man to follow on Twitter because he just doesn't care anymore. He's not looking for contracts, he's not looking to please people. He's happy to speak his mind. But he was on a team in 2017. World Tour team. One of his teammates was, I've got a butcher in his name, maybe you know how to pronounce it better and I do, Tascaboo, Grammy. Uh huh. Is that the African guy? Yes, the African guy. Yeah. If you're listening. I don't know how to say his name. Yeah. If you're listening to us, I massively apologize for that one. But he was saying openly the staff would call him the N word. Yeah. Like he said it was just across the whole team and he confronted a writer on his team about it. And he said, yeah, dude, You cannot use that word. This is not cool. It's not playful Like you guys aren't home. He's here or whatever you think this relationship is. It's not cool I was like he asked him straight out. He's like are you a racist and your man came back said yes? I don't like his sort I was like this is yeah, this is three years ago. This is not in 1920 Yeah, and that's what I'm saying like dude I don't understand where the hate comes from because like me personally I've been robbed by gunpoint I've been shot at like all these things and I don't hate my people. I understand that there's bad characters. There's bad people in every race. Like when people start understanding that this is an individual thing, then, you know, we won't care what color someone is. Like you dislike it me because Donald Trump is white. Yeah, that's so stupid. It's just like those people are ignorant of shit. I thought it's Donald Trump white. I feel like he's this weird sort of orange, bro. Yeah. It's like, you know, one of those girls in the nightclub that just gets the fake tan, badly wrong. Yeah. Yeah, it's weird. Corey, you're an ambitious guy. You seem to have a joy of that. I don't know if you even, it's inherent or your dad's instilled in here, but you've got go about you. Where do you see yourself next year? I know that's a slightly strange question with the whole COVID thing going on, but yeah, like a road. I was, I was, I was, I was feeling really good about this year. Like when I came into it, the first race was a road race. Yeah, I'm not historically good at them, but I made the breakaway there. One with my team. We want one too. I did 300 Watts for three and a half hours. Nice. As a sprinter. What way are you? I'm a 65 KGs. I like to use KGs because you just know that's. I know, I know that's what you use. That's a pretty good power. I've watched, so impress our listeners here. What's your sprint power? I've done 1,640 watts before. Dude, I'm not going to lie to you. Like peak power. But you know, the biggest race of my career, I only had to do 1,100 watts. And that's the thing that a lot of people listening don't understand. Like I've seen foils from flying instead of one big races, like pro races, they're putting out a tells and what's, they're just putting it out at the right time. Yeah, and I mean, it's obviously the speed is a massive difference, and that's another thing people to understand, when you're going 40 miles an hour, you're not doing 1700 watts, it's not happening. It's all gone to the US and race and crits for me to truly understand the difference between power and speed because they are not the same thing. Exactly. How hard is not when you race a speed wins your race? And I know guys that are doing 1900 watts, they like to post it up and they don't win anything. And I'm like, I'm skinny as shit. So when people see my power, they're not impressed. And I'm like, yeah, but I'm 65 kgs and you're like 90. Yeah, yeah, I know it's the difference between fast on is whiffed and fast on Strava and actually just fast. I don't even want to get to the whole Zorf racing thing. It took some serious jate in going on there. Bro, I know this guy, I know. Name him. Name him. I'm not even naming him. I'm not even naming him. It's this guy I know he used to race with my dad. He's like 40. He's probably like 48 about now. And he couldn't even be my dad.
He couldn't even beat me when I was like 16 years old
He couldn't even beat me when I was like 16 years old. We get on Zwift. And this man, I literally got dropped from the race. And he won. And I was just like, what is going on here? I'm just saying, I've jumped on during lockdown because we had like a two kilometer radius during lockdown. We weren't allowed outside. Yeah. We actually decided COVID was a problem over here. So, I was on what bike on Swift, and doing the team time trials. And like a local guy, just like that. Like, he couldn't stay with me doing a coffee shop ride. Yeah. And I'm getting dropped in the team time trial. Like, I'm sitting in his way, like 400 watts. I'm like, oh, gosh, like my girlfriend's coming into the room. Like, get away, get away. I'm full. trying to hold this deal as well. So what's the big plans for you guys in Legion for next season? So we're going Conti. Is this an official announcement? Yeah, we're going Conti. We will be paying all of our guys. Yeah, we're planning on obviously doing a lot of crits, but we're going to pay a little bit more attention to the road racing in America. Awesome. Have you got a roster nail down? down? Yeah, we do, but I'm not telling you. Now we got a we got some really good good guys that we're talking to right now. So you don't want like a hundred listeners like DM and you'd receive after the show? Oh, no, we're full, man. We have we have a ton of people already. We're full. It's so hard to get into games for kids that are coming up like When you just, it feels like you need to grow in for so long to get into the gold teams and they feel so much earlier than people think. Yeah, yeah, it's still like even growing up with me. I tried to get on hand, Kathy is it just never happened. Like they, a lot of the times they want their friends or or whatever. Like, it's hard to get into a new team. Yeah, 100%. Corey, for you personally, what's the next five years looking like? It's a great question. One of my early coaches sat with me and he said, if we do a podcast, me and you come back or I'm over in LA, you're in Dublin and we go for a beer five years from now, what has to happen in between now and then for you to go do it. You won't even believe how cool the last five years were. It's happening. Honestly, like personal sponsors out the ass, honestly, and like, I just want to be able to take care of myself. a lot of the times, in cycling, especially at the Conti level, you can't take care of yourself. And that's where I'm headed. That's all I need. The racing, I can be crits easy. I like to challenge myself with road races. So I think I'm going to be doing the same shit. Awesome. Corey, you're a gent. If people want to follow your story, follow Legion. What's the best place for them to catch up with you? on Instagram and on Instagram, follow me at a nation as number one beast. You've got a smile every time you say it on handle. Yeah. Have you ever said it to a girl in a nightclub? Yeah, you should hit me up on Instagram. No, I haven't got it. But yeah, I get a lot of shit for that name. I'm like, bro, I came up with it when I was like 15 years old and then it actually grew into something. Corey, you're a legend. I appreciate you taking the time on. Dude, thank you for having me. Hey everybody, it's Anthony again. Really quick, I want to invite you to join arguably the best thing I've ever put out inside the roadman community. It's a challenge. It's a challenge called a 14 day kickstart challenge. So regardless of where your fitness is at right now, this is going to be the catalyst for making you faster and making you the leaner. I've created this challenge to take the guesswork out of everything. It's 14 days of training plans regardless of what your level is. There's Masters, Beginner, Advanced, there's Mail Plans, Shopping List and even a video course holding your hand and talking you through at all. So what I recommend you do right now is just stop everything, press pause on this audio and go to roadmansoycling.com forward slash 14 day or check out the link in the bio. That's roadmansoycling.com slash 14 day.