trek madone

Ben King made history in the 2010 US Pro Cycling Championships by becoming the first U23 rider to take home victory. In this historic win, Ben King was riding his Trek Livestrong U23 Madone to victory in Greenville, SC. On the heals of this win, King will be transferring over to the Radioshack team, so let’s take a closer look at his game changing Livestrong Madone.

• Frame: Trek Madone
• Component Group: SRAM Red
• Wheels: Bontrager Race XXX Lite Clincher
• Handlebars: Bontrager Race XXX Lite VR 31.8
• Stem: Bontrager Race X Lite 7 Degree 31.8
• Saddle: Bontrager inForm RXL
• Tires: Hutchinson
• Pedals: Speedplay Zero

Detail Picture by James at Bicycle Design

If you would have asked anyone in the audience who was going to win the US Pro National Championship road race this afternoon, the answers would have ranged from defending champion George Hincapie to Team Radioshack’s Levi Leipheimer or even Livestrong/U23′s Taylor Phinney who won the TT championship the day before. Who wasn’t on everyone’s mind was 21 year old Ben King from Livestrong/U23. In an early and strong breakaway, Ben King joined five other riders to put serious time on the main peloton. While climbing Paris Mountain on the 3rd of 4 large laps, King dropped the hammer and proceeding to finish the last 50 miles of the race solo and win the US Pro National Championships upsetting all of the favorites in the process.

“I couldn’t believe how slow we were going on the first lap,” said Reijnen. “The fact that Ben King had the Trek-Livestrong colors on I think guys thought the RadioShack team would help with that chase. When one big, strong team isn’t motivated it really demotivates the field. (The finishing circuits) were awesome. Coming through that start/finish line you could hear the roar. Greenville is a great place for nationals.”

“I was trying to find all the motivation to keep going. It doesn’t seem like it was worth it when you are hurting that bad but Lim kept 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.”

“Once I was solo and still had nine minutes a lot of things were going through my mind and a lot of different motivators,” King said. “My Dad [Mark] and sister [Hanna] were out on the course so I was thinking about that. I started praying pretty hard after Paris Mountain and onto the circuits and I think my prayers were answered.”

“I’m pretty self-motivated and when I got out there at the beginning I wasn’t thinking that I was going to win,” King said. “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 of some of the RadioShack guys if I could.”

Ben King’s win on Sunday’s road race wraps up a Trek/Livestrong/U23 sweep of the weekend with Taylor Phinney’s win in the TT finals. With one of the toughest fields in US Pro’s history, this showcases the strength the United States cycling program has coming up through the ranks.

Top 10 Finishers

Gallery

Regardless of what you think of the new design or new Radio Shack team, you have to admit that the process of building up one of the new ‘Shack bikes is pretty cool. In this video posted on YouTube by Trek Bikes, they take us through the process of making a Madone look like a Radio Shack team frame. Can we say complicated?

Personally…I like the look of the new frames even if they have the R logo all over them.