A CRAZY Ass Story!

[Razors Edge ★]

...from the world of @Dottie's neck of the cycling universe:

Semper Porro's Cory Lockwood has denied allegations that he intentionally caused a crash last week at the Cascade Cycling Classic, telling Cyclingnews his disqualification from the race sprang from a misunderstanding and that none of the USA Cycling officials, fellow riders or team directors involved – including his own – approached him to get his side of the story.

The incident in question occurred on the final climb of stage 3 at the USA Cycling American Road Calendar event in Oregon. Lockwood, who won the overall at the Redlands Bicycle Classic in March, was in a chase group languishing nearly six minutes behind a seven-rider breakaway that was riding away with the stage win and eliminating all but a handful of riders from general classification battle.

Lockwood was on the front of the group on the long, gradual incline when, several riders say, he locked up his brakes and caused a crash among those behind him. USA Cycling officials disqualified Lockwood from the race, and the governing body told Cyclingnews it has started an investigation into the incident, with a suspension for Lockwood a possible outcome. In a phone conversation with Cyclingnews on Wednesday afternoon, however, Lockwood denied intentionally causing the crash.

"That didn't happen," Lockwood said. 

"Actually, the race had been over for some time, and I was basically out on a training ride and I was trying to tell people I was out on a training ride. My teammates and I were riding, the break was up the road, the race was over," he said. "I made it explicitly clear, verbally telling people, hand gesturing, waving – and not hand gesturing with the middle finger, like somebody else posted. That was nonsense. I never did that. I was hand gesturing people to ride around me.

"I even made an attempt – and not like when you see people on television where they swerve across the road to get people off their wheel; I wasn’t doing any of that – I moved over to one side of the road, completely outside of the peloton, and the other riders would come over to me, go around in front of me, and then slow down in front of me. And so I'm trying to just go to the other side of the road and stay away from them, train on my bike, tell them what I'm doing, and they would pin me on the front. I'd slow down and move away from them," he said.

"This happened so many times to the point that I think we were going 12 miles an hour up a hill, and I think it clustered and ran into the back of me while they were doing this, after they came across the road to me, rode in behind me and then ran into me – the giant six-foot-three-tall rider in bright-red riding gear with his hand up motioning them around like we’re on the bike path."

The crash took down two-time Cascade winner Serghei Tvetcov (Floyd's Pro Cycling), Luis Villalobos (Aevolo) and Hangar 15 guest rider Daniel Lincoln, a 39-year-old physician who was a 2004 Olympian and former American record holder in the 3,000 metre steeplechase. Tvetcov, Villalobos and Lockwood were able to quickly remount and finish near the front of the chase group, while Lincoln suffered more damage to body and machine and struggled across the line more than a minute down on that group.

Aevolo and Hangar 15 immediately registered their complaints with chief commissaire Dot Abbott, and the race jury decided to disqualify Lockwood. Semper Porro manager and coach Jordan Itaya posted on social media that he would have pulled his rider from the race if the officials hadn't done it for him.

Lockwood took issue with how the disqualification was handled, saying no one consulted him or asked for his side of the story before making the decision to remove him from the race.

"I made sure I went back and made it clear and talked to the Aevolo director," Lockwood told Cyclingnews. "I even went over and gave the kid a hug. What was his name? Villalobos? I offered to fix his shoe and buy him a new shoe. I even bent over and straightened up his sock on his leg. I went over and shook [Aevolo director] Michael Creed's hand and talked to him. I went over and talked to the Hangar 15 guys. I didn't find the Floyd's guys, so I didn't get a chance to talk to them.

"I made sure I went and smoothed it all over. Then, in the meantime,  I motioned to my team director that I was going to go back down to the van to go load up. I never saw him, I never talked to him. They then went over and had a collective decision to remove me from the race without even talking to me, which is fine. It’s their right to do that. Maybe they should have consulted me first and got my side of the story. I’m not really angry about that at all. I guess I’m more disappointed that nobody approached me and got the facts first before they did all of this."

Lockwood said the allegations of intentionally causing a crash would be completely out of character for him, and he would never intentionally try to crash another rider. 

"I've spent my entire life riding a bicycle," he said. "I literally wake up at five o'clock in the morning, do everything from measuring my food on the gram scale to going outside and riding for four or five hours, posting on Strava and doing my Instagram. My whole thing is that I just want to race my bicycle, because I feel it is a journey and I want to share it with people. I'm not trying to do anything malicious here. And, unfortunately, things happen in racing. Sometimes there's accidents. That's by definition why it's called an accident. People run into each other and you didn't mean to do it.

"I wish they would have come and talked to me, but nobody has reached out to me," Lockwood said. "My team manager hasn't reached out to me. He's my ex-coach now, because I don't agree with the way he's been representing me online. It's just unfortunate that a lot of things are just coming to a head right now, and it's boiled over onto social media, and I feel like it’s turned into this giant forest fire. I don't even know what to do with it right now." 

 

[Dottleshead ★]

Dude.  I read half that then lost interest.  What the heck is the problem here?

[Scrapr ★]

2 hours ago, Dottie said:

Dude.  I read half that then lost interest.  What the heck is the problem here?

guy was JRA and a peleton ran (ram?) into him

this was in my neck of the woods. I didn't hear anything about this. But i don't follow them much. I believe one day goes past our house 1 block away. Have seen the crit downtown. Cascade Cycling Classic was cancelled last year. Lack of sponsorship i think

[Razors Edge ★]

4 hours ago, Dottie said:

Dude.  I read half that then lost interest.  What the heck is the problem here?

Just read the bolded part.  Honestly, anyone who tells a tale like that bold section is someone I never want to ride with let alone race with. 

Most of us have ridden with sort of person before, and it isn't real pleasant.

[Dottleshead ★]

7 hours ago, Razors Edge said:

Just read the bolded part.  Honestly, anyone who tells a tale like that bold section is someone I never want to ride with let alone race with. 

Most of us have ridden with sort of person before, and it isn't real pleasant.

Good thing about me is you won't see me riding next to you.  I'll be alone or riding with my wife.  If it's e-bikes, I'll ride with some friends. Generally, I ride my bikes like I play video games.  Solo campaigns or limited networking.  Otherwise, you speedsters can buzz off.

[Longjohn ★]

8 hours ago, Razors Edge said:

Just read the bolded part.  Honestly, anyone who tells a tale like that bold section is someone I never want to ride with let alone race with. 

Most of us have ridden with sort of person before, and it isn't real pleasant.

I read like some of Beanz’s stories.

[Road Runner]

On 6/7/2019 at 6:15 PM, Dottie said:

Dude.  I read half that then lost interest.  What the heck is the problem here?

I just came here to read a crazy story about someone's derriere.  Ass stories are usually fun, especially so if they are crazy ass stories.   

[donkpow]

That guy creeps me out.