Ben King’s Trek-Livestrong Madone

After a long day back at work, I am still coming down from the excitement of another great US Pro race weekend here in Greenville. It was great to see 20-year-old Taylor Phinney from the Trek-Livestrong U23 development team pull off the time trial win on Saturday, but his 21-year-old teammate Ben King’s victory in the road race on Sunday was even more exciting to witness…truly one of the most impressive solo breakaway wins I have ever seen. Many Greenville locals were out to support defending champion and resident pro George Hincapie, but Ben King won over the crowd as he fought hard to become the youngest winner in the 25-year history of the USA Cycling Professional Road Race Championship.

Enough talk about the race though. In keeping with the theme from Saturday’s post, I want to share a few of my shots of the winning bike, King’s SRAM Red equipped Trek Madone.

I have many more pictures from the weekend to post, both of the racing action and of pro bikes from the different teams. Look for all of those on my Flickr page as I continue to sort through and get them uploaded.

Update: My race photos are now uploaded to Flickr. You can also see my shots of many more of the pro’s bikes in a separate photo set.

Posted

September 20, 2010

Road Bike

James

Tags:

Ben King, Greenville, Madone, road bike, road racing, trek, US Pro, USA Cycling Championships

Comments

3 responses to “Ben King’s Trek-Livestrong Madone”

Nick Hein

September 27, 2010

Please don’t forget to mention that the bikes you described are the fastest ONLY in their highly-restricted and arcane racing category. Ironically, your post came in the week before the unrestricted fastest bikes were to demonstrate their stuff at Battle Mountain in the Human-Power World Speed Championships:
http://www.wisil.recumbents.com/wisil/whpsc2010/speedchallenge.htm
As it appears the timetrial bikes in your article use streamlining on every exposed part of the bike except the rider (the source of 95% or more of total drag) it hardly seems HPVs should be excluded from mention anymore. The Battle Mountain races are now over, although the previous record of 83mph wasn’t beaten, the womens’ record was (75mph) and there are now dozens of riders in the 60, 70 and 80mph club – a club that unfaired diamond frame riders have yet to enter. But records and races are one thing, bike transportation is another – and that is where streamlined HPV’s really deserve mention because the same fairing that streamlines the rider also shelters the rider from weather. Many HPVs have been inspired by the Battle Mountain bikes that are now getting their riders places under their own power, in any weather at any time of day or year. Thanks for the great coverage otherwise.

Reply
1. James T
  
  September 29, 2010
  
  Nick, Thanks for the link to the Battle Mountain results and pictures. The 2010 WHPSC was brought up in the comments section of my previous post about the time trial bikes. As I said in that post, it is certainly an indisputable fact that full fairing recumbents are by far the fastest bikes in the world on flat ground. I don’t mention HPVs on this blog frequently, simply because I do not have any first hand experience with them. I do have a strong interest though. Maybe I need to get out to Battle Mountain next year to talk to some of the builders and see some of those machines in action.
  
  Reply
  1. Nick Hein
    
    September 30, 2010
    
    Couldn’t have said it better myself. Seeing them is a transformative experience – although they make little sound and they aren’t visually overwhelming, they are inspirational in profound ways. Make sure you ask for test rides.
    
    Reply