VA's Ben King Wins USPRO Road Race Champs, his 3rd Stars and Stripes of the Year

21-year old Ben King from North Garden, VA became the youngest US Professional Elite Road Race champion in the history of forever yesterday with a courageous 40-mile solo effort, holding off powerful squads from BMC, Garmin-Transitions and Columbia-High Road. There's full coverage just about everywhere, including VeloNews, CyclingNews and of course Forbes (you know, because cycling is a huge money sport).

Team RadioShack director Johann Bruyneel congratulated King via Twitter, and publicly announced the racer's move to the ProTour in 2011: "Congrats 2 future @teamradioshack rider @BenKing89 on USPro road title 2day in Greenville. Amazing ride! Stars & Stripes back in the team!"

King raced as a Junior with Charlottesville Racing Club beginning in 2004, before getting picked up by the Hot Tubes development team and the US Junior National Team. Wins at the prestigious Fitchburg-Longsjo Stage Race followed by National Championship victories in both the Road Race and the Time Trial in 2007 caught the attention of Kelly Benefits Strategies, and King signed his first pro contract with them. In 2009 King moved to the Trek/Livestrong U23 Development Team under the tutelage of Axel Merckx (who also just invited Joe Dombrowski onto the team).

In addition to the Elite US Pro Road Race Championships, King has earned stars and stripes jerseys this year for wins in the U23 TT National Championships and U23 Road Race National Championships.