Cyclingnews is proud to welcome our new video blogger, Cory Williams (Elevate-KHS). Williams, 24, hails from Los Angeles, where he and his older brother Justin have been dominating the regional criterium scene for years and filming their exploits using helmet cameras. Cory`s videos appear on the Youtube channel dubbed `nation`s number one beast` but he will be doing a special block of videos for Cyclingnews as part of our Bell Lap Criterium Series. Williams grew up in a working-class neighbourhood in South Central Los Angeles where bike racing was not exactly the go-to sport for kids. But he was inspired to take up the sport by his father, Calman, who raced bikes in Belize before relocating to California, and continued to race, taking his sons along. `Every kid wants to be like their dad - he would take me to races every weekend and I`d do the kids races,` Williams says. `I wanted to make him proud and show him I could do the sport. He always told us it was hard, and if we did it we couldn`t quit. Whenever I have a bad day I always remember that. My dad`s a pretty tough cookie, he`s always pushing us to be better.`ADVERTISEMENT Bike racing wasn`t always Williams` sport of choice - he played football as a running back for nine years in school. `I played football and rode bikes in the offseason,` he says. `I had a long history in football, but I got to the point where I had to choose which one I was going to give my attention to.` Four of his classmates went on to the NFL: De`Anthony Thomas (Running Back, Kansas City) - Hayes Pullard (Linebacker, LA Chargers), Marcus Martin (Center, Dallas), Greg Ducree (Defense, Pittsburg), but Williams couldn`t resist the pull of bike racing. `For some reason cycling pulled me in. I`m not that tall - 5`9` - and the chances of me making it in football weren`t that great.` He was also swayed towards cycling by the family`s close relationship with Rahsaan Bahati, who raced against his father. `He`s like my brother,` Williams s ...
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