CRIT Championships announces teams and format for inaugural edition

The race, put on by L39ION of Los Angeles manager Justin Williams, is billed as a cycling 'all-star game'

22:00, Friday 13th October 2023

Logan Jones-Wilkins

Junior Writer - North America

Into the Lion's Den was the first attempt at race promotion by Justin Williams and his L39ION of Los Angeles team

The CRIT Championships, put on by Williams Racing, who run L39ION of Los Angeles, has formally announced the teams and race format for the standalone, invite-only race in St. Petersburg, Florida, on October 21.

The race, which is the final result of a project that started as an broader, internally focused series of American style criteriums, is an attempt at creating something of an “all-star game” for cycling, with the team list filled with squads that have been formed and conceived for one race only.

While it has teams functioning like American style sport franchises, with teams representing particular cities, CRIT is only one standalone race that will proceed like most American criteriums – seventy minutes, four corners per short laps and winner takes all.

“CRIT is the culmination of a lifetime of dedication and passion to the sport of cycling, and is our shared vision for what the future of cycling can look like,” Justin Williams, the race organiser, told GCN.

“It's always been about the journey and the people we’ve met along the way. For years we’ve been striving to create an inclusive and competitive environment that brings out the best in people. We are building what we couldn’t find: a stage that welcomes riders from all walks of life, encourages competition at the highest level, and above all inspires the next generation of riders to ensure the legacy of our sport.”

Williams, who will be racing and organising the CRIT Championships, has been suspended for a portion of next season by USA Cycling, as GCN has reported. That suspension, therefore, will not exclude Williams from riding in the CRIT Championships.

Who is racing

With L39ION of Los Angeles being the central team for the operation as Williams Racing’s primary team, the riders of L39ION will be some of the strongest amongst the peloton. However, those riders will be spread throughout the other rosters on the start list.

Beyond the L39ION of Los Angeles riders, Luke Lamperti is the big name on the start list, as the Soudal Quick-Step recruit is starting his off-season back in the United States before his first WorldTour campaign. Interestingly, Lamperti will actually ride for L39ION of Los Angeles at the CRIT Championships, while Justin Williams will race instead for the 'New York City Dream'.

Other notable names include the full squad of the Miami Blazers, who featured in a recent GCN+ documentary, and celebrated cycling photographer Jered Gruber, who is racing for his old 'home team' from Atlanta, Georgia.

Lamperti, who is a three-time criterium national champion, was also one of the stars of the Williams’ last endeavour to create an end of season criterium competition with their 'Into the Lion’s Den' project in 2021.

While CRIT is put on by Williams Racing like Into the Lion’s Den, it is a much less ambitious prospect in terms of prize money and scope. Into the Lion’s Den boasted a prize purse that totalled $100,000 and the race attracted the likes of SD Worx riders Amy Pieters and Demi Vollering.

The race, however, was followed by a PR firestorm as the women’s winner, Olivia Ray, posted five weeks after the event that she was not paid. The row that followed on social media was picked up by the major cycling outlets and included accusations of coerced apologies, but ultimately resulted in all of the winners getting paid shortly after Ray made the social media post.

While it may seem unorthodox, delayed payouts are fairly standard in professional cycling as the riders are subject to things like drug testing and tax paperwork, something that took even more time for the new race without any infrastructure around to facilitate the complex process of large scale payouts.

Into the Lion's Den was set to continue in 2022, but was scrapped a couple of month ahead of the race in the fallout of the high profile fight between Justin Williams and Best Buddies Racing at the Salt Lake Criterium.

What are they racing for

Instead of a $100,000 up for grabs, the new CRIT Championship will have a modest prize purse for the individual winners and the winning teams based upon mid race sprint points.

In total, the men’s team winner will get the biggest cut to split – with $2,000 going to the top teams in the men’s race and pay structure going five deep – while both the individual winners who crosses the finish first will get the biggest personal payout – with $1,000 going to the winner and the pay structure running three deep.

The women’s race, which was unable to gather a field of teams the same size as the men’s race, will have seen their prize pools inverted, with the individuals getting more of the prize share than the team prize. Both races will have the same total prize purse and there will be a small prize of $400 to the rider in each race who takes home the most points from the four sprints, including the finish.

While the CRIT Championship has been billed as a major event in the North American race scene, the race is emphasising community building and on-site fan engagement with a 'Gran Fundo', a 5km running race and amateur races before the invite-only professional races in downtown St. Petersburg. With this focus, the race is not streaming anywhere and will instead be promoted and shown through social media and through films after the fact.