Ben King is the US National Champion
On Sunday, Ben King became the first Under-23 classified rider to win the USA Cycling Pro Championships. The event was held over the weekend in Greenville, South Carolina, and the 21-year-old Trek-Livestrong rider was well ahead of the rest of the field
for most of the latter half of the race, who were fighting over second place more than two minutes behind.
"I'm pretty self-motivated and when I got out there at the beginning I wasn't thinking that I was going to win," said King. "I was joking around on the course and then thought I better start getting serious. I was thinking that if I could be up there at
the front, when the selection was made from behind I would still be there to help Taylor (Phinney) or some of the RadioShack guys if I could."
Phinney, also an Under-23 rider, is now the national time-trial champion, having won that competition of Saturday ahead of Levi Leipheimer, for team RadioShack. The two new champions both ride for RadioShack’s feeder team Trek-Livestrong, but proved they
had it in them to beat their ProTour counterparts.
"This is probably one of the biggest wins in my career because it is an Elite national championship," said 20-year-old Phinney. “This is a jersey that I get to wear for the next year and in my first year as a pro and I am very excited about that.”
Phinney finished eighth in the road race, which was won by 21-year-old King in a solo finish. The bunch sprint in the chase group was won by Alex Candelario for second place. Defending champion George Hincapie, for BMC-Racing, finished in fifth, 1:35 behind
King.
"I wanted it to be aggressive and there were attacks at the bottom," said Hincapie. "I was patient and then went full gas the last kilometre or 800 metres. Kiel Reijnen and Levi came with me. We had 40 seconds right away and took out a bunch of time on King.”
King had already won the Under-23 national championships in both road racing and criterium, but Phinney explained that it’s just not the same as winning a Pro event. Both riders will be joining the professional ranks next season, though Phinney hasn’t signed
anything yet. The time-trial champion revealed that BMC-Racing and the new Luxembourg team had both expressed interest, but King has opted to jump to the Trek-Livestrong parent team, RadioShack.
"I just got permission to announce that I will be riding for RadioShack next year," said King. "I'm sure winning this race will help a lot with my future. One of the things that kept me going in the final circuits was having Allen Lim yelling, 'you are making
history, this is huge'. When I was on the podium I started to realise that I don't even have to shave yet."
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