Ben King: 2010 U23 National Criterium Champion

Hello from beautiful Bend, Oregon.

U23 National Time Trial: 35 km
I could basically copy paste my depressed report from last year’s tt on this course. After series of flustering incidents before and during the race, including the information that a friend was recently diagnosed with cancer, I was frustrated with my 15th place. Fortunately for the team’s morale Nate Brown had a solid ride and finished 4th, and Julian Kyer took 6th (another repeat performance). Although I was disappointed, I was not discouraged. It was simply a bad ride. On to the next one.

National Criterium Championship: 60 km
Today we had a lot of cards to play with three of the fastest U23 sprinters fully supported by the rest of us. As the lap board counted down from 46, it was clear that we weren’t the only ones looking for an aggressive race. Attack after attack kept the pace high, but no one could escape the grip of the peloton. Our team was represented in almost every move. The aggression increased noticeably inside 10 laps to go. With 4 to go, last year’s champ, Alex Howes, countered a move by his teammate on Garmin Transitions, our main competition. Again, no gap on the field. I took advantage of his effort and attacked with 3.5 laps remaining, hoping that the other strong teams would burn up early trying to catch me. Our sprinters could relax behind them and do their job at the finish. One rider came up to me, but looked incapable of working, so I put my head down. Make them Chase! With two laps to go, we still had about a 300 yard lead. It began to dawn on me that what began as a suicide move for my teammates, could become the late race winning attack. I continued to bury myself, glancing back every so often to check the lead. The pack stretched in pursuit gave me a jolt of adrenaline. Entering the final lap, I could see the sprinters thrashing on their bars and knew they were closing fast. However, coming down the home stretch I had enough lead for a proper victory salute.

Ben King

Ben King rode the perfect race with the help of his TREK-LIVESTRONG teammates to capture the U23 national criterium championship in Downtown Bend, OR. The whole team rode strong and in the process launched Justin Williams across the line in 3rd and Gavin Mannion in 6th respectively. Tomorrow brings the final day of racing for the team with a 160K road race.

Nathan Brown counting down.

Congratulations goes out to Nathan Brown for his 4th place finish in U23 Nationals in Bend, OR yesterday. “I’m very pleased with my ride, I went into the tt hoping for a top ten and I’m more then happy to come out with a 4th place” stated Nate.” Nate also comments “None of it would have been possible without everyone who has helped me out to get where i am and I Thank everyone of them.” Julian Kyer finished with a solid 6th place on the day and sets his sights on a podium in the upcoming road race on Saturday.

Ben King, the best young rider at the Nature Valley Grand Prix

By Ryan Nilsson, The Republican Eagle

Riders Ben King (USA) and Nathan Brown are interviewed about the Trek-LIVESTRONG program at the Nature Valley Grand Prix.

CANNON FALLS — In a parking lot near the corner of Mill Street West and 3rd Street North, Ben King prepared for the third stage of the Nature Valley Grand Prix cycling race beside the team SUV.

First he munched on an energy bar. Then he changed out of his shorts and Livestrong T-shirt, slipping into bibs and a race jersey in the sweltering sun.

Instead of wearing the black and yellow jersey of his Trek-Livestrong U23 team, King donned a white jersey Thursday.

The white jersey stamped King the current leader among the field’s young riders.

“As an Under-23 development team, that was obviously a target for us,” King said.

The white jersey tells only part of the Trek-Livestrong story, though. In addition to fostering budding young cyclists, the Lance Armstrong-owned team strives to raise awareness for the fight against cancer. Armstrong, a seven-time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor, founded the nonprofit Livestrong organization to support people living with cancer.

Read the complete article here.

Tim Roe on the podium at Thueringen Rundfahrt

Congratulations to TREK-LIVESTRONG’s Tim Roe on a great ride at Thueringen Rundfahrt in Germany. After six days of racing, Tim finished second overall in the GC with the help of his teammates. Taylor Phinney  and Julian Kyer put in a solid week of protecting Tim. Phinney finished in the top 10 four out of six stages including the third place finish for Trek-LIVESTRONG in the team time trial. The whole team rode aggressively in their final European campaign, clearly demonstrating they are a competitive team on the international stage.

Taylor Phinney

Julian Kyer finished a strong sixth place in the general classification.

Ben King getting amongst it at Thuringen Rundfahrt

Taylor on the podium with his third place finish in stage two.

Tim Roe on his way to his 2nd place finish in stage three at Thuringen Rundfahrt

Ben King in the white jersey at Nature Valley Grand Prix

Stage 3: ???
What was supposed to be a 66 mile road race, turned into a 45 minute race. With a strong wind… very strong, the field was nervous and dangerous. When a moto official rode up and told us that the race was being stopped because a tornado had touched down 5 miles away, I was the first one to hit the brakes and yell “everyone into the ditch!” It seemed like a joke, definitely a first, but it wound up being “the worst natural disaster in Minnesota history.”

Stage 4: 30 mi. twilight criterium (1 km circuit with six 90 degree turns/lap)
With one crit under my belt this week, I was quicker through the corners, but with Kelly Benefit Strategies still in control we took a conservative approach to the race. If they were working to defend their lead, then they were also working to defend our lead in the under 23 category, and big days were coming. The laps counted down until 10 to go. The pace slowly ramped up to the finish. With 8 to go a group of riders crowded into a corner. I was on the outside, and got pushed right off the road. Realizing I was going down, I looked for the most comfortable option, and plowed into a stack of hay bails. Nothing but a bruised knee. I took a free lap (riders with mechanicals or crash victims report to the pit and rejoin on the next lap), but got shoved in at the back. Fortunately, the field stayed together and nothing changed overall.

Stage 5: 95 mi road race
Our tactic was still to play off the strongest teams. A series of extremely steep hills stung everyone late in the race, and tight finishing circuits kept things single file. An early break established a maximum lead of 2 minutes, but KBS ground their lead down. On the final climb, we had 5 of 6 guys in the top 20. As we entered the circuits, teammate Nate Brown bridged across to the break solo. The break stayed away until 3 miles to go. Iggy sprinted for 10th on the stage, Gavin 15th, and myself safely around 20th, still in the white young rider’s jersey and 10th overall. Nate hung on to the front group and is still top 15 on GC.

Stage 6: The infamous Stillwater Criterium

The lore of this course’s intensity precedes it. The winding course is nothing but 20 laps up and down a sheer climb off the river. KBS lead by a mere 3 seconds ahead of two time winner, Rory Sutherland, guaranteeing a showdown. 5 laps in, 3 riders held around 10 seconds over the field. It appeared that KBS may want a break to succeed and steel the time bonuses from Rory, so I bridged across. We stayed for just 3 laps, and I worried about the cost of the effort. The selective course helped the strongmen ride up front. After 10 to go, we lost chunks of riders each time up the climb. The move we’d been waiting for came from Rory on the climb going into 1 to go. He attacked with 2 others. I jumped up to the wheel of the yellow jersey. He can close it down. The gap to 3 leaders stretched. He can’t do it. I sprinted halfway across on the climb, turned to see my closest competition for the young rider on my wheel. I did not want to give him a free ride to the time bonuses at the finish, so I tried to bluff him into helping close the gap. He didn’t pull through, so we waited and hoped someone else would take over. We never caught the leaders, but I got up the hill one more time and finished 6th on the stage, moved into 7th overall, and kept the young rider jersey.

Ben King drilling it in the Stillwater criterium

Nate, Charlie, and I are having a blast with our host family (getting smoked by their kids on the wii). The other guys are staying in a separate, equally awesome home. Next stop, Bend Oregon for U23 nationals.

Trek-LIVESTRONG continues to move up the daily podium at Internationale Thüringen-Rundfahrt, with Tim Roe’s second place finish in Stage 3. In his usual fashion, the 20-year-old from South Australia rode aggressively in the breakaway and now moves into second place in the general classification (0:00:03) behind John Degenkolb (Ger-  Thüringer Energie Team). Team director Axel Merckx sums up the Aussie’s impressive performance, “Tim Roe….Remember this name!”

Pictured below, teammate Taylor Phinney also enjoyed podium time, finishing 3rd in Stage 2’s final sprint. Trek-LIVESTRONG now leads the team classification by 0:00:56, with both Tim Roe (2nd) and Julian Kyer (6th) in the Top Ten.

Taylor Phinney placed third in Stage 2’s sprint finish.

Ben King’s (AUS) aggressive climbing moved him from 8th to 2nd place in the general classification.

Ben King(US) digging deep in the Nature Valley Grand Prix TT

Nature Valley Grand Prix: 5 days, 6 stages
After another long stint of racing with the national team, It’s great to be back with my Trek-Livestrong brothers. We’ll be lining up with the top US teams to sharpen up before U23 Nationals next week.

Stage 1: 6 mile Time Trial

As I finished my warm-up, the one I learned from British teammate, Lord Dowsett, I watched riders rolling back from the finish and knew from their expressions that I was in for 15 minutes of pain. The course was flat with a steep half mile climb to the finish line. This TT was unique because no time trial equipment was allowed. That means no solid wheels, alien helmets, or aero bars.
I set out at a pace I knew I could maintain, caught my 30 second man, and attacked the hill to the finish. The times were all relatively close, but I wound up in 10th place and am leading the best young rider competition (riders under 23). Teammate Nate Brown finished 16th and is the 2nd best young rider.
We have a few hours to rest up for tonights criterium.

Stage 2: 40 mile twilight crit

Apart from the Gila stage race, I haven’t done a real USA style crit all year, and Gila was just a bunch of skinny climbers (not crit specialists). I forgot how crazy they can be with people dive bombing and chopping corners, crashing, pushing, and sprinting. The big teams easily controlled the field for a sprint finish, while I hung back and tried not to die. After a while, the rhythm of crit racing started to come back and I began enjoying the enthusiastic crowd and counted down the laps. On the last three laps I just closed down gaps and cruised in 21st to keep the young rider jersey.

The race finished at 9 PM and we’re all wound up. Could be a late night!

Ben King (US) on the podium in the white jersey (Best Young Rider) after stage two

Trek-LIVESTRONG finishes third in the opening team time trial of Internationale Thüringen-Rundfahrt with a time of 20:40.08. The 23.7-kilometer course stretched around Bleicherode, Germany. The team  finished only .07-seconds off of second place, slightly edged by  LKT Team Brandenburg (GER). Team Jayco Skins (AUS) won the stage with an impressive margin of 58 seconds (27:42). The six-day race continues tomorrow a 148-kilometer course running from Bleicherode to Wasungen.

Congratulations to Taylor Phinney for defending his Paris-Roubaix Espoirs title! The victory marked the second time in two-years the American has won the race across the world’s most unforgiving cobbles.  The 19-year-old from Boulder, Colorado continued his winning streak after winning four stages and the general classification last week at the Olympias Tour.

Teammate Ben King (AUS) lead the peleton in an early breakaway with seven other riders that gained up to three minutes at one point. Thee impressive performance allowed for the Australian-native to drive a hard tempo, widdling down the leader group to teammate Phinney, Jens Debusschere (PWS-Eijssen Cycling Team) and Fabien Taillefer (Team Véranda Rideau Sarthe).

After a valiant effort to protect the team leader and race favorite, King eventually dropped setting up for Phinney to easily claim the sprint finish. King and teammate Jesse Sergent both placed in the Top 20 with 6th and 13th place finishes in a team effort that secured Phinney’s second consecutive U23 Paris-Roubaix title.