Written by 06:20 Pro Cycling Story

A letter to my younger self

Dear Me,

Let your dreams run wild, young Ted(dy), because guess what…

Your first year pro in Europe will be with one of the most iconic teams in a generation, the Cervélo TestTeam. Your teammates will include the reigning Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre and Thor Hushovd. It will be a cultural melting pot with 25 different riders from 15 nationalities, spearheaded by sponsors who are forward thinking. A decade later when you retire, social media and video content will be the standard across all teams but Cervélo TestTeam pioneered it before it’s crossed anyone else’s mind. They’re ahead of their time in 2009!

Your language skills will flourish when you sign for Liquigas. Yes, it’s actually called Liquigas. You’ll go to work for some heavy hitters with the last names Basso, Nibali, Viviani, and a young up-and-comer named Peter Sagan. Keep your eyes on him, he’s pretty handy on the bike. You’ll be honing your Italian while you help him with his English — Peter has a fondness for watching How I Met Your Mother and summarizing the entire show for you. The show isn’t any good, but it’s worth your patience.

Ted King

Ted King on the gravel roads of Italy

There will be this one time when the Classics team is training on the white roads of southern Tuscany. You’ll have just ripped a particular section and as the group is slowly joining back together, Peter will come up to the group, pull a wheelie, and take one hand off the handlebars. He’ll be pedaling along with you all, you’re going uphill, he’s giggling like a young kid while the rest of you are still regaining your breath, then he’ll take both hands off the bars and keep riding with you, no-handed and one-wheeled. It’s up a 15% grade on white roads! Everyone is exhausted, completely shattered and he’s riding like a circus bear. So do yourself the favor now and try to learn how to wheelie while churn out 450 watts no-handed — it’ll be a good bar trick if nothing else.

The team will go on to become Cannondale Pro Cycling. Most of your four years with the Italians will be right alongside Peter. The Tour of California, the Classics, the Tour de France, soak those in, the actual moments are fleeting but the memories will last a lifetime.

Ted King

Cycling will be an education in itself. Be sure to keep a global perspective on everything you’re doing. Be curious why, but don’t bother getting caught up in the minutia. Blast through your intervals, pay attention to the race tactics, observe what happens with a particular diet, but recognize how these things all fit together in this enormous puzzle called bike racing. An interval in February will have an impact on a race in August; trust in the process that everything fits together, all the while not letting yourself be bogged down by the details.

Oh get this, you know how you love maple syrup? Believe it or not, you’re going to start a maple syrup company! You’ll have some great partners back in Vermont and together you’ll start a crowd-funding campaign during your second Tour de France that helps you launch UnTapped. Crazy, right? Over your globe-trotting career, you’ll spend a good deal of time telling people how amazing maple syrup is. Here’s the kicker, just like them, you’re thinking about syrup on pancakes and oatmeal. Do yourself, (ahem) ourselves the favor now and start telling people that maple syrup is good on everything, especially on the bike.

You’re going to be a pro for ten years — a nice round number. I don’t want to entirely gloss it up, because this sport will be hard. Like, really damn hard. You’ll miss plenty of life’s highlights back home, weddings, birthdays, graduations, anniversaries, and general life with friends and family an ocean away. It will be a tough decision but you’ll step away from cycling on your own accord, still with a healthy level of excitement, respect, and gratitude to the sport. You’ll actually still be relatively young when you retire, 32 years old, but you’ll know it’s time to go. It’s time to start something new and to really double down on maple.

Retirement will be daunting, it’ll probably keep you up some nights, but rest assured it’s pretty amazing too. Sure, you have a college degree but that doesn’t provide any guarantees. You’ll go on to partner with a handful of the sponsors that supported the teams you were on over the previous decade. You’ll discover, there is life in retirement thanks to industry leading companies like Cannondale, SRAM, Zipp, Velocio, POC, Beeline, and Speedplay. Plus you’ll have a second family with these great folks at inGamba which will continue your time riding throughout Europe, this time with generous food rather than ample starvation. It’s a hoot, just trust in the process, remember? And start now to think of a better word than ambassador because it doesn’t quite do the trick.

Ted King on an inGamba trip

Ted King on an inGamba trip with his wife Laura on his wheel

Every single day in retirement will provide a new and different adventure. You’ll work with product development, lead camps, engage with local cycling development, help more kids get on bikes from coast to coast, ride some crazy adventures all over the world, lead popup rides, and develop a charitable ride called the King Challenge. I won’t tell you why yet, it’s also a tough life lesson, but it will draw the community together like you can’t even imagine. It’s bittersweet but incredible.

Oh, get this: You’ll start pointing your bike off the pavement more and more. So there’s this stuff people will call “gravel”, but that pretty much means anything off-road. Skidding will be just as fun as it was when you’re five years old. Let me offer you this piece of sage advice: stop riding 23c tires at 120psi right now; slap the biggest tire that fits into the frame and drop the pressure to the high 70s. No, you won’t pinch flat, no, it’s not any slower. The grip to the road is better, the ride quality is better, and it’s comfy as hell. Get onboard with disc brakes too. They’re eye-opening.

Gravel riding is a thing now. Ted loves it. Photo: EMBRY RUCKER

He said he’d never date a cyclist. Meet Laura, Ted’s cyclist wife.

You know how you never thought you’d date a cyclist? Get this, you go onto marry one! Allow me to spoil the details. You’ll retire, move to California, then on just your second weekend in the Golden State you’ll be on a birthday bash with 25 local rippers. Just minutes into a 100 mile day, the whole group inexplicably gets cold feet, some people are tired, others need to get back to the city, coaches orders don’t let them do the full five hours. In the corner of your eye you see two ladies roll away, obviously fed up with this nonsense and hard charging to tackle the whole ride. Make no mistake, FOLLOW THEM. You’re welcome.

Cycling will give you a lot. (Which is funny, because of learning how to ride as a kid, it’s not until the age of 19 that you start really riding a bike.) It will bring your friends, a family, a career, and adventures that you could never even begin to imagine. Start dreaming kid, because they just might come true.

Yours,

Ted

Header photo: Embry Rucker

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Last modified: Jan 20, 2020
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