A revamped L39ION of Los Angeles co-ed staff will not function the dynamic trio of sibling sprinters within the subsequent 12 months, as Samantha and Skylar Schneider be part of Cory Williams in a transfer to the Miami Blazers co-ed squad for 2024.
Justin Williams and Ty Magner will proceed to anchor the lads’s facet of L39ION of Los Angeles whereas sisters Alexis and Kendall Ryan lead the cost for the ladies. The transfers will now pit brother towards brother in addition to arrange pairs of sisters as adversaries slightly than teammates.
It’s a transfer riders appeared desperate to make, as all success nonetheless stays within the household, so to talk, with each L39ION and the Blazers owned by Williams Racing Improvement. A 3rd staff within the organisation are the Austin Aviators, a home elite staff just like the Blazers, which can announce their roster later this month.
“I feel 2024 would be the most fun 12 months in American criterium racing that we have had shortly, on each the lads’s and ladies’s facet, with a whole lot of gifted riders unfold out on totally different and new groups. I am personally excited to shake issues up just a little bit by transferring to the Miami Blazers and sit up for the quick and aggressive racing we will have this 12 months,” Skylar Schneider advised Cyclingnews.
The Schneider sisters accounted for a hefty 36 podiums and 18 victories for L39ION final 12 months alone, whereas the Ryan sisters earned 21 podiums and 9 victories. The quartet prospered on US soil throughout all criterium occasions, from the American Criterium Cup, Tour of America’s Dairyland, Intelligentsia Cup, USA Pace Week and omniums at Saint Francis Tulsa Robust and IU Well being Momentum Indy.
As well as, two-time US Professional Criterium champion Kendall Ryan took the professional crit silver medal in 2023 and Skylar Schneider gained the Pan-American street race title then added the bronze within the US Professional Nationals street race. Youthful of the Schneider sisters, Skylar joined L39ION of Los Angeles in 2021 whereas her sister Samantha was added in 2022. Kendall Ryan additionally joined L39ION in 2021, and her sister Alexis, two years youthful, got here on board final season.
Additionally transferring to the Miami Blazers from L39ION are Julyn Aguilar on the ladies’s facet and Eder Frayre and Cory Williams on the lads’s facet. New to the 10-rider males’s squad are Cory Lockwood and three-time US observe nationwide champion Gavin Hoover, who will work for returning staff chief Brandon Feehery. With simply three ladies on the home elite setup, the Blazers may add visitor riders at varied occasions all year long.
The Williams brothers, who co-founded L39ION of Los Angeles, spent six seasons racing in tandem throughout their careers, the final 5 at L39ION. Justin took to social media to easily state “I consider in you” for his brother’s new path.
“Even once we combat, ultimately I all the time acquired your again. We now have by no means declare to be saints, and we all know we’re not excellent, however, ultimately we nonetheless right here doing what they mentioned we couldn’t; Now with the three of the highest groups within the nation,” Justin Williams wrote on Instagram to his brother, and referencing the help for L39ION, Blazers and Aviators.
“Subsequent 12 months you might be your personal man, you’ll be taught onerous classes and I’ll train a few of them, however I consider in you. And I’ll all the time have your again.”
Justin Williams will return for a sixth season at L39ION of Los Angeles. Amongst eight podiums final season the staff co-founder gained the opening criterium on the three-day Saint Francis Tulsa Robust. His season was marred by a second suspension in two years, this time for 60 days for harmful using within the Audi Denver LIttleton Criterium on August 5. That 60-day suspension shall be served from April 13-June 13, 2024.
In early season races, the staff will look to former US Professional criterium champion Magner, who was the highest L39ION rider with sixth place within the males’s total within the American Criterium Cup and gained the omnium title at Momentum Indy. Alec Cowan, Kyle Murphy and Robin Carpenter additionally return on the lads’s facet, with Yarely Salazar on the ladies’s facet.
Danny Estevez, previously of the Blazers, and Richard Holec are new additions for the L39ION males, whereas Barbados nationwide street champion Llori Sharpe provides firepower for the ladies after two seasons with Canyon-SRAM Technology.
Riders for L39ION of Los Angeles and Miami Blazers are anticipated to participate in pre-season races in California and Arizona within the coming weeks, with staff camps set earlier than Sea Otter Traditional in April.
