US rider denies deliberately causing crash after being disqualified from race

A US rider who was disqualified for deliberately locking his brakes on a climb and causing a crash has denied that this is what he did. Cory Lockwood, who won the Redlands Bicycle Classic earlier this year, was said to have grown frustrated during the Cascade Cycling Classic because no other teams would work to chase down the break.

A staple of the US domestic circuit for nearly four decades, the Cascade Cycling Classic can count the likes of Levi Leipheimer, Jonathan Vaughters and Lance Armstrong among its former winners.

Cycling News reports that during stage three of this year’s race, seven riders were several minutes up the road with Lockwood and his Semper Porro teammates keen to chase them down.

Unable to find assistance, with most teams represented in the group ahead, Lockwood is said to have lost his temper. Aevolo director Mike Creed said one of his riders claimed Lockwood twice locked his brakes in front of other riders, angry that no one would help him work. The second time he did it, three riders went down.

"USA Cycling can confirm that as a result of the crash, a decision was taken by the race jury to disqualify Mr Lockwood and recommend him for a suspension," said USA Cycling Technical Director Randy Shafer.

"USA Cycling will review the report, and if discipline is warranted, Mr Lockwood will receive notice of an investigation and possible sanctions. Based upon the investigator's findings, if discipline is recommended, he will have the right to request a hearing before further discipline is applied."

Lockwood’s team manager and coach, Jordan Itaya, seemed to take the claims at face value, writing on the Semper Porro Instagram account: “I want to personally apologize to every rider affected and the associated staff or officials. I went to talk with the officials to tell them I was going to pull Cory from the race, and they informed me he has already been disqualified. I support the disqualification, and I apologize again for the impact of Cory's actions.”

Lockwood denies attempting to cause a crash. He claims that due to the riders up the road, he had been treating the race as a training ride and had told the riders around him that this was what he was doing.

"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.”

Lockwood said he was, “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.

"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."

Lockwood said that he “smoothed it all over” with the other teams after the stage, including with Erik Slack, who had been directing the Hangar 15 team.

Slack said that one of his riders had told him that Lockwood had been “straight-up yelling at everyone” on the climb and had, “got so fed up with it that he locked it up.”

Slack had a somewhat different version of the conversation with Lockwood at the finish.  

“He said, 'Before you say anything, I know you're going to be mad. I lost my cool out there and I just got frustrated. I shouldn’t have done it. It’s the first time I’ve done it, and sadly it might not be the last time I do it. It's just who I am. It's my background in motocross. It's an aggressive sport where you crash people out, and that’s my background. I have a temper and my coach is trying to work on that. It’s just something we have to work on.'

"He didn't even really say he was sorry. It was just that's just who he was. I think that was the worst part about it. He acknowledged that he knew it was wrong, but he never said he was sorry about it."