A decade ago, the American pro was at the peak of his career at a home World Championships. He never dreamed of the challenges he would face since, or that they’d make the ones from his time in the sport feel tiny in comparison.
Cor Vos, Logan Jones-Wilkins, Ben King, Kristof Ramon
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When the elite men’s field rolled away from the University of Richmond on a late September day at the 2015 UCI Road World Championships, it was the Virginia city’s time to shine. The skies were grey, but the mood was undeniably sunny as hundreds of thousands of people gathered around the course for the men’s road race.
Road Worlds were in the United States for the first time in four decades, after a five-year pull to bring the fight for the rainbow jersey to the East Coast. Nowhere on the 10-mile circuit was the energy as emphatic as it was on Libby Hill, the serpentine cobblestone climb that was the centerpiece of the race. American cycling fans took the climb as an opportunity to finally masquerade as the cycling-crazy fans they watched on television cheering on the heroes of the summer at the Tour de France.
For all the sport’s stars who were present, the biggest cheers went out to Ben King, a 26-year-old American rider who was in the day’s main breakaway. Of all the riders in the peloton, he was special for this crowd. King was a Virginian through and through; born in Richmond and raised in the state, he was the undisputed hometown hero of the 2015 World Championships.
The fans on Libby Hill knew it. Not only that, they made it known to everyone tuning into the race from around the world, with a massive sign and a huge cheering section made up of many of those hooligans in the costumes.
For six hours and 15 minutes, King did the best he could to cement that hometown favorite status as more than an introductory point to the day. He wanted to make an impression. That impetus resulted in King stealing off the front in the break of the day, sacrificing his chances for the efforts of Taylor Phinney and Alex Howes, who were Team USA’s options in the end.
Unbeknownst to King, this also gave him the chance to play the starring role on Libby Hill, leading the break around the cobbled switchback at the middle of the short, Belgian-lite climb, in front of a huge banner with his name on it. All thanks to those friends and family standing behind the barriers screaming his name.
King would go on to greater competitive success, but driving the breakaway on the home course at Road World Championships in 2015 was a personal highlight of his career.
Looking back now, King’s career was in some ways improbable for a rider who admits he struggled with imposter syndrome throughout his career. Most notably, his time as a pro lasted 12 years, continuing for seven more seasons after Richmond Worlds and including highs like two stage wins at the 2018 Vuelta a España. It’s hard to say you don’t belong somewhere when you’ve been there for a decade and were never asked to leave.
But on that euphoric day on his “home field,” King finally felt like he belonged. But it was more than just that. Worlds was a lesson for the tribulations of life that King never dreamed of, but would come to endure anyway. The same values and qualities that put him at the front of the field that day would help him with the challenges that awaited him, which would make everything he ever faced on the bike seem tiny by comparison.
The ‘imposter’ who always belonged
Ben King still lives in Virginia. In fact, as a recent home buyer in the Richmond suburbs, King lives closer than ever to the Richmond Worlds course. He even gets recognized now and then around town as the guy who once did that race that brought so much joy to the city. It’s a day King still remembers vividly as a high point of his career.
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