Cory Williams breaks down what separates winning criterium racers from the rest of the field—and it's not what you think. Beyond raw power numbers, he explores the mental game, bike handling skill, and race tactics that actually matter, plus how he's built Legion into a movement that's reshaping who feels welcome in cycling.
"There's a difference between like getting top 20 and winning and the last thing I wanted to do as a kid was get in the way of the big guys."
"I think that because there are power meters on everyone's bike and they can't just go out and ride 300 watts all day, the separation is now who has the most skill on the bike and who actually pays attention to learning how to do a bike race."
"I hope I inspired all the people in cycling to be themselves like I know I'm a bit flashy with my gold chains and my diamond studded uglies but I just I hope I inspire people to be themselves and not fall into the line of this robotic cyclist."
“I used to think I was training right and like it was a funny moment where I got on my first uh pro team and I went to a training camp and we were riding so fast and I was like I've been doing something wrong like I've been riding way too slow I was doing like 170 watt averages on on rides and I thought that was training and it wasn't.”
“Before working with your brother he was having the average these crazy numbers like almost 400 normalized in NCC crits just to get around the race and then he was talking to your brother and he's like no I put now way less than that and I'm way heavier than you it's just you don't know how to handle your bike and you don't know the ebb and Floyd is racism and he managed to drop his normalized power down by almost 100 Watts.”
“I think that because there are power meters on everyone's bike and they can't just go out and ride like let's say 300 watts all day I think the separation is now yeah who has uh the most skill on the bike and who actually pays attention to learning how to do a bike race like yeah they might be able to ride at 300 watts but they don't know how to control their bike or they don't know race tactics there's a lot that actually goes into it it's not all about power.”
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