602nds with Ted King

Mar 19, 2010

602nds recently had many readers ask if we could get Ted King to interview on the site. They all mentioned that they found him a funny and charismatic guy, and would look forward to seeing what he had to say. 602nds tracked him down and recently had the opportunity to interview Ted.

Ted currently rides for UCI Professional Continental Team, Cervélo Test Team (CTT). He is 27 years old and an American cyclist from Brentwood, New Hampshire. He previously rode for the USA U23 National team in 2005, Bissell Pro Cycling Team from 2006 – 2008 and then joined CTT in 2009.

Ted has his own Blog called “I am Ted King” which in the last year has grown among the cycling fans as the place to go to find out what is or isn’t the correct way to wear anything from the colour of bibs & brace, shoe covers, gloves etc etc . Ted also enjoys baking; in a recent interview with Podium Cafe the topic turned to how he had been making pumpkin bread and experimenting with different ingredients. Ted is a man who cooks, looks after his appearance and if you have recently read his tweets on twitter, is funny. Most of all he can ride a bike and is well respected by fans and riders in the Peloton.

602nds hopes you enjoy our interview with Ted King.

602nds: What is the one race you would like to win before you retire from cycling?
Ted: Amstel Gold. That race is just straight up rad. After busting my arm at Tour of California, Amstel was one of the first races in my European reintroduction. Amstel is like a six hour criterium – it’s so hard, so fast, and so mentally draining to be switched ON for that long, but I loved every minute of it. Plus they give out cool little Amstel beer beanie hats to the 100,000 fans lining the roads. Does not get much better than that!

Note to Ted: Ohh, I didn’t get a Amstel beer beanie last year when there, maybe you can grab one for me this year! (CycleGirl)

602nds: What is your personal cycling goal for 2010?
Ted: I want to start my winning in Europe. Sure, that answer doesn’t sound very lofty, but in truth it is. The style of racing is so much different in Europe as compared to back in the States that it’s virtually a different sport. The learning curve is steep and in 2010 I have a lot of experience across the board – how to train properly, how to read and react to races, plus another year living in this nutty lifestyle – so I plan on putting that into action this year.

602nds: What is your all time cycling moment?
Ted: I’m at a loss coming up with a answer that is equally ambiguous as this question. But I simply can’t do it. My “all time cycling moment”…?

602nds: Do you have a tip for someone who  is just started out riding?
Ted: Ride more. If you’re new to the sport, lots of volume should help you out tremendously. The huge asterisk besides that piece of advice is that you should have someone overseeing your training so as to not burn yourself out. You don’t need to make the investment (yet) into a coach, but having a mentor is helpful. Hmm, now looking at this answer I’ve provided you with two tips to someone starting out: ride more and get a mentor. Maybe a better piece of advice is learning how to use clip-less pedals on a nice soft grassy lawn rather than unforgiving pavement.

602nds: Do you have a ritual you do before all your races, or a lucky charm etc…
Ted: Nope. I think superstitions are bunk. I just do the stuff that I have to do by default – get kitted up, pack the jersey pockets with bars and gels, sign on, blah blah blah.

602nds: If your iPod  was broken and it could only play one song continuously.. What would it be?
Ted: I’ve been rocking out to Sophia Fresh’s What It Is featuring Kanye pretty non-stop since getting the song last week, but I might go nuts if it was forever. Alternatively, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, or “Rach 3″ to the layperson, is pretty amazing. I am 100% serious.

602nds: If you could go out to dinner with anyone, who would it be and why?
Ted: Anthony Bourdain seems to be a fascinating fellow. His affinity to food, adventures, and abrasive style would make for an entertaining dinner.

602nds: If you had $1000.00 USD to go and buy one piece of clothing what would it be?
Ted: I’d buy a $75 pair of jeans and pocket $925. Dropping big bucks for clothes is just nutty. $1000 is nearly worthy of an entire wardrobe – not a single piece of clothing. King of Style (KoS) endorses frugality as much as looking really really good.

602nds: Do you check out what the other cyclists wear when going out and give them advice when needed?
Ted: No ma’am. They should learn through osmosis. See what I’m wearing and try to parallel it with their own bit of flair.

602nds: Being such a Style guru, everyone has an opinion on the Footon-Servetto kit, what are your thoughts?
Ted: I’m partial to avoiding controversy, so no comment is as much of an answer as you’ll squeeze out of me. But perhaps you’ll be able to read between the lines on that one to get my true opinion.

602nds: Apart from yourself, Who else in the Team cuts a fine look when dressed up to go out..
Ted: “Cuts a fine look.” That’s some brilliant phrasing, I like it. Not because they don’t look good, but because it’s such an awkward question to answer, I will avoid responding to this question.

602nds: Your “I am Ted King” website sells “I am not Ted King” shirts and stickers with 50% to 100% of proceeds donated to the Krempels Center – New Life After Brain Injury. Can you tell is a little about the charity and how the “I am Not Ted King” came about?

Ted: My father suffered a very unexpected and life altering stroke at the age of 57. I won’t go long windily into it, but you can read in more detail about it here.

That episode has taught me an entire life’s worth of lessons. Seeing how Dad and my family have progressed through this brain injury has been remarkably inspiring. I’ve wanted to give back in any way I could, so once I saw there was a demand for these items, selling them was a pretty straightforward beginning.

As for the origins of the name, TedKing.com was already taken by an American soap opera actor. So in search of something a little more original, I came up with iamtedking.com. I had a contest on my site to come up with the logo which resulted in the iamtedking logo you see today. From there it was shirts, but pre-production, people were saying that they want shirts with not thrown in there. Blah blah blah, the iamnottedking logo was born.

602nds would like to wish Ted King a successful 2010 cycling season, and would like to thank him for taking the time to chat with us.If you want to keep up to date on what the KoS, Ted King is up to, you can follow him on his Blog: “I am Ted King“ or follow his daily twitter tweets.

If you would like to help support Ted’s charity,the Krempels Center – New Life After Brain Injury, then check out Ted’s “I am Not Ted King” t-shirts and stickers.

Photos courtesy of Cervelo Test Team