Justin Williams (cyclist)

Justin Williams (born May 26, 1989) is a Belizean-American cyclist who currently is a rider-manager for UCI Continental team L39ION of Los Angeles.^[3] He began racing as a teen and won multiple amateur US National Championships in track, road, and criterium.^[2][4][5][6] He focuses on increasing the diversity of the sport and founded and manages a team in order to mentor young African American and Hispanic riders.^{[7][8][9][10]}

Career[]

Williams grew up in South-Central Los Angeles.^[8] His parents were immigrants from Belize.^[8] Williams played football with his cousins growing up, but his football career was ended by injury and the disapproval of his mother.^[3]

Williams's father was an amateur bike racer, and Williams took up riding to try to connect with his father.^[8][11][12] Williams's first bike ride was planned to be 70 miles along the Pacific Coast Highway but it ended when he cramped up after 50 miles.^[3][11][10] His father rode away and left Williams on the side of the road where his aunt picked him up.^[3][11][10] Williams understood the message his father was trying to convey: "Racing bikes is hard and you need to be serious about it."^[10] He began racing a few months later.^[11] Williams knew there were not a lot of opportunities for black men in South-Central and saw cycling as a means to avoid getting in trouble with the law.^[3]

Williams did well in the sport, winning many Criteriums in California as a teen.^[3] His goal was to join the US National Team, but felt that they ignored him despite his racing results.^[3] Williams eventually made the team after winning the 2006 Junior Track National Championship in Keirin.^[2][3] The National Team wanted Williams to focus on track cycling but he loved road racing and wanted to continue training for that.^[3]

As a teen, Williams's father had introduced him to racer Rahsaan Bahati, and was from Bahati that Williams realized he could go professional and race in Europe.^[10] Williams joined the Rock Racing team in 2007—the same team his mentor Bahati raced for—while still racing with the national team.^[4][10] Rock Racing folded in 2009 and Williams moved to Axel Merckx’s Trek-Livestrong development team for the 2010 racing season.^[3] In 2010, Williams went to Europe where he had success in Kermesse races in Belgium.^[3] He was a domestique for Taylor Phinney in the 2010 Paris–Roubaix Espoirs race that Phinney won.^[3] Although the national team coaches felt that Williams had a lot of potential, Williams decided not to go back to Europe after flying home to visit his family during the 2010 season.^[3]

Williams had developed a reputation for being "hard to deal with", but he contends it was in part due to being a young sprinter who needed guidance and part due to him being stereotyped as an "angry black man".^[3] With his professional career seemingly ended when he left the national team, Williams moved back to California and attended Moorpark College.^[2][3] He raced for a few low level teams during this time, but did not have much success.^[3]

William's younger brother, Cory Williams, joined Cylance Pro Cycling and convinced them to hire Justin Williams as well.^[3] Williams was hesitant to get back into professional racing, but saw it as a good opportunity to support his brother.^[3] Despite his initial trepidation, Williams had a breakout season, winning 15 races.^[3] Cylance promised Williams they would keep Cory on the team, but they cut him after one year.^[3] Williams was contractually obligated to continue racing, and although he debated sandbagging he decided that "I don't win for them, I win for me" and had another stellar season, racking up 14 wins.^[3]

In 2018, Williams signed with Specialized-Rocket Espresso fixie criterium racing team at the Red Hook Crit.^[3] He felt instantly at home with the other team members, and appreciated the lack of politics and drama that he had tired of on the UCI circuit.^[3] The team allowed Williams to compete as an independent rider in road races as well.^[3] Williams won both the road race and criterium national championships in 2018.^[5][6][7] He placed in the top 3 in 30 of the 35 races he rode that year.^[7]

In 2019, Williams founded his own team, L39ion of Los Angeles, where he is both the manager and primary sprinter.^[3] The team is a mix of profession cyclists and development riders, many from South-Central LA, as well as both of Williams's brothers.^[11][12] The "39" in the name represents 39th street where Williams grew up.^[12] Williams once again won the amateur criterium national championship.^[5]

Williams found racing at the pro level difficult because he was the only minority, and that made him want to make the sport of cycling "great for everyone".^[7][9][12] This experience led him to work for increased inclusion and innovation in cycling.^[7][13] As part of that effort, he mentors African American and Hispanic riders on his development team, Endo CNCPT.^{[7][8][9][10]}

In June 2021, Williams officially changed his UCI nationality to Belize, and won the Belizean national road race championships later that month.^[14]

Major results[]

References[]

External links[]

• Justin Williams at ProCyclingStats
• Justin Williams at Cycling Archives
• Justin Williams at CQ Ranking