Justin Williams kept his newest stars and stripes jersey hanging in his bedroom for a few days. Before trying it on, he wanted to look at it, admire it, take it in, what it all meant.

He had won quite a few of these jerseys, going back more than a decade ago, to when Williams was a teenage cycling phenom riding out of South Central Los Angeles. But a new one still meant something to him—its red, white and blue flag pattern signifying that Williams was once more, at age 30, a U.S. national champion.

“It’s overwhelming,” Williams said. “It’s everything you’ve worked for, from when you’re a kid.”

Williams’s latest stars and stripes is for winning the 2019 U.S. men’s national amateur criterium race, defending his title from the year before. Williams also won the road racing championship in 2018, but it’s criteriums, or “crits”— high-energy, multi-lapped, sharp-cornered races where riders bump shoulder-to-shoulder and speeds push over 40 mph—where he is the man to beat.

Here’s the truth: When Justin Williams shows up to a race, the rest of the field is probably fighting for second place.