And cycling isn't even the most interesting bit. John is a professional skier with aspirations to make his debut in the Olympics the same time as his sport makes its debut. That's right, skimo is on the verge of becoming an Olympic sport in 2026 and John is one of America's very best. But he didn't grow up on skis, nor on bike (at least on bicycles). Nor was it in his plans to start and run an outdoor apparel company. Nor was it his plan to be a perennial presence on the Leadville podium. And ye...
Aug 18, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 162
The bike racing action across France doesn't end when the men hit the Champs-Élysées. Heck, it's just getting warmed up for the fourth edition of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift! It's long overdue that women's cycling is hitting its stride right now and the fact that it's earning its due is thanks in part through the work of Kate Veronneau, the Director of Women's Strategy at Zwift. This former NCAA Division 1 college basketball player and professional cyclist has helped the TdFFaZ earn suc...
Aug 02, 2025•37 min•Ep. 161
Former Pro Tour professional cyclist, recent UCI gravel worlds qualifier, Global Cycling Network host, former team director, infrequent -- and perhaps former -- race commentator, Dan Lloyd has worn many hats in cycling. And now he has King of the Ride guest on his resume! Join my Kelly Brush Ride! Also visit kellybrushride.org/ride and use code TEAMKING25 to save $20 off registration! Need cycling legal advice, visit BicycleAccidentLaw.com Get yourself the newest generation of AG1 by visiting dr...
Jul 24, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 160
Florian Vermeersch is a Belgian cyclist with some very impressive palmares to his name. 2nd place in Paris-Roubaix as a 22 year old, a pair of silver medals at the UCI gravel world championships, a handful of wins, a whole bunch of podiums, not to mention he's often the right hand man to Tadej Pogacar in plenty of races on the UAE Emirates squad. This was a really fun conversation to learn more behind the scenes with Florian on his ride through the World Tour ranks. If you have any need for a cy...
Jul 04, 2025•1 hr•Ep. 159
Our most frequent guest is back! Roger Brown brought a new training technique to UNBOUND XL and that was a mix of training, not training, waffling on whether he would do the event or not, a trip to Europe, and ultimately a successful go at the 359 mile UNBOUND XL! We'll talk all the usual song and dance about his preparation, how it all shook out, how he bought a shirt (for free!) in the town of Alma, seeing things deep into sleep deprivation, GLP-1, and why we weren't at the Formula 1 race in M...
Jun 20, 2025•1 hr 50 min•Ep. 158
Rob Britton stole the show Saturday morning at UNBOUND. He not only passed Lachlan Morton after a 200km chase, but he forced the UNBOUND organizers to rethink their morning strategy because he crossed the line just before 9am, when there's traditionally a 50 mile roll out. He rode the nearly 360 mile in smoking fast pace! Rob is not new to racing, as he's won some of North America's biggest road races. With the switch to gravel in 2022, he's has big results in the LTGP and plenty of other big ev...
Jun 09, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 157
Mads Würtz Schmidt has national titles, world titles, and World Tour pro wins but going into 2025 he's taken his skillset to gravel off-road to gravel. He's already racking up wins taking two UCI wins, the prestigious Traka 200 title, and now he's here on North American soil to try his hand at Unbound. Mads and I met up two days shy of the boiling hot Gravel Locos for this face to face conversation. Covering his time in rainbow stripes, his World Tour career, struggles with physical and mental s...
May 27, 2025•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 156
Bike racers don't come much friendlier than Emily. They also don't come much more fierce, much more driven, they generally don't juggle as much, their palmares are usually shorter and they probably didn't have a first career as a professional pianist. But this professional athlete is all of those things which makes her an amazing podcast guest, which make for a really fun conversation! Enjoy this conversation with Emily Newsom and follow her at @instagram.com/emilyjoynewsom Get your hands on a S...
May 17, 2025•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 155
Fresh off hosting the 2nd annual Growler bike race and the 16th annual Levi's Gran Fondo, Levi sits down with Ted to talk about the state of cycling here in North America. The Growler has the crown of the highest purse of any one day race in the world... let that soak in for a second. Bigger than winning Paris-Roubaix or a Tour de France stage. $156,000 is up for grabs and the race draws road racers, the top gravel racers, mountain bikers, and more. Ted and Levi raced Tours of California togethe...
May 02, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 154
Ted sits down with a return guest, Jan Heine of Rene Herse Cycles and Bicycle Quarterly, to discuss how to be fast in the modern age of cycling. "Get low and pedal faster", right? Well... there's a lot of truth to that, but there's a lot more nuance to it. Tire widths, frontal exposure, riding with aero this and that, this dynamic duo talks through lots of the hot button issues on the tip of gravel racers tongues these days. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to scroll back to episode 97 where w...
Apr 18, 2025•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 153
Quoc Pham has the work ethic of a World Tour pro cyclist, the design savvy to walk a Parisian runway, and an upbringing that’s extremely unique in the cycling world as a refugee from Vietnam. He launched his eponymous shoe company, Quoc, back in 2009 which has seen many iterations from a dapper commuter, to a fashionable boot, then with the release of the Grand Tourer he ventured into the backpacking and gravel space which has been his launch pad all the way to the feet of Tour de France winner ...
Apr 08, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 152
Chase Wark and I set out on a pretty wild adventure on Sunday March 26, separately but for the same purpose. Purposes, rather. We were both seeking an FKT on the Mega Midsouth and in a much bigger picture, we were seeking to raise funds for the United Way of Payne County. This podcast is in conjunction with The Stable Cyclist and covers a lot from a very busy weekend in Oklahoma. Please enjoy. I am continuing my fundraising through the end of March by sending money to my @iamtedking Venmo. Get y...
Mar 25, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 151
Maghalie is a supremely successful professional cyclist with a lengthy list of palmares including nearly 50 UCI wins, World Cup podiums, and loads of national titles. She's in the midst of being a cyclocross racer with her heart and soul in the sport that is thriving in Belgium and is trying to find its legs elsewhere. You can find Maghalie and her Dirty Talks podcast here: https://open.spotify.com/show/0rtdEydjqc4E38onNx5Lql Watch her CX Fever show here: https://www.youtube.com/@maghalierochett...
Feb 24, 2025•1 hr 48 min•Ep. 149
Hello and welcome back to King of the Ride! Today is a bit of cross-pollination. I am drawing from a recent Gravel Kings podcast, where Laura, Stu, and I sit down to dissect Race Around Rwanda in a two part recap. But here we've distilled it down into one episode. So, please do yourself a favor and hit SUBSCRIBE on Gravel Kings. We're three hosts with radically different cycling backgrounds talking about what matters to you in the cycling world. I'm excited to have created a vlog from my time in...
Feb 19, 2025•2 hr 18 min•Ep. 150
One of my favorite things to do in this podcast is to talk with the How I Built This style, namely to chat with the movers, shakers, and entrepreneurs to hear how they started their business. Amid being a professional athlete and then coach, Dirk started TrainingPeaks, which at this point has to be among the most popular pieces of training software on the planet. Every single Tour de France team, World Tour team, pro rider and aspiring professional uses TrainingPeaks. Hey, don't forget to get yo...
Feb 01, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 148
You likely know Cam Wurf from his exploits on a bike. He set record after record in the Ironman World Championships on the bike leg, then stepped back into the UCI World Tour after a six-year hiatus and has been working his way into headlines since. He's an Ironman winning athlete, generally found somewhere on the podium when the race is a wrap, but he's also known for wild exploits like running a half marathon for training the evening after riding Paris-Roubaix. Let's not forget that he's an Ol...
Jan 23, 2025•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 147
They don't get more genuine than Chase Wark. Maybe that's those northern midwest roots, now living in the hallowed Driftless region of Minnesota (...home to the US national gravel championships, as we'll discuss today). No stranger to big results, to gravel beef controversy, to aero gains, and diving deep in search of the spirit of gravel, Chase brings a lot to the table as you'll learn today. Follow Chase's journey at @chasethebiker And get yourself some AG1 for goodness sakes. Visit drinkAG1.c...
Jan 10, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 146
Finding a single word or short phrase that encompasses all that Christian does is easier said than done. Furthermore, I'm not sure in which order to put those three words, Cyclist, Ultrarunner, Entrepreneur, because over his life he juggles all three. Christian is a long time professional cyclist turned race winning ultra trail runner. He's also started a number of successful businesses in beautiful Girona, Spain. He's the founder/owner of La Fabrica Girona Espresso Mafia Chance Run Apparel Over...
Dec 17, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 145
Bond Almand just rode a record setting pace from the northern tip of Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina. Over 75 absolutely wild days, Bond rode into ferocious headwinds, among throngs of cities, highways, oil fields, high mountains, great plains and desert, and so much more to make it to Ushuaia, Argentina. More than 13,500+ miles later, he made it. Keep his website nearby: www.bondalmand.com as you'll want to cross reference it often. Check out drinkAG1.com/tedking...
Nov 23, 2024•1 hr 41 min•Ep. 144
Melisa Rollins is our esteemed guest today. She’s been in the game for a handful of years, but she’s quickly turning heads, especially here in 2024. Earning the most acclaim was a smashing victory at Leadville, the hallowed 100 mile mountain bike race scraping across some of Colorado’s highest peaks. She just won Iceman Cometh. She was second in the life time Grand Prix. She’s won Chequamegon, she’s podiumed the overall at Redlands. She has seven Leadvilles to her name. And she's seemingly just ...
Nov 14, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 143
Luke immediately proved his worth stepping into the World Tour, coming third in his first ever race with Soudol Quick-Step having helped deliver his teammate to the victory. He finished 7th at Kuurne Brussels Kuurne, won a stage of Czech Tour, and has a boatload of results coming up through the ranks prior to this year, including back to back to back US criterium national titles. As if it doesn't get better, he's just an awesome guy. Tune in with this fun conversation that wraps up his neo pro y...
Oct 26, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 142
In particular, "Brussels Gravel" is on topic today. There has been lots of chatter about the course itself. The less than enthusiastically dubbed bike path world championships . In this conversation, Laura and Ted break down their perspectives on the course itself and what Belgium has to offer; the astounding level of World Tour competition (looking at you Lotto Kopecky and Mathieu van der Poel!); the type of support from USACycling, and how the race shook out... among other things. Don't forge ...
Oct 19, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 141
Jessie Diggins' name is synonymous with success for US cross country skiing. She broke the drought for all of American skiers as she and Kikkan Randall (episode 36) won the first gold medal for the United States in 2018. Jessie is a four time Olympic medalist, a six time world champion medalist, an author, and activist working with The Emily Project and Protect Our Winters (POW) as a winter athlete alliance. Among other accolades. She is a great follow on Instagram where you can find her at @jes...
Sep 27, 2024•51 min•Ep. 140
Smack in the middle of finding success (and the yellow jersey!) at the Green Mountain Stage Race, I wanted to sit down and talk with Sam Boardman about all things contemporary professional cycling. From his days at UCLA through the wild times at Wildlife Generation and Legion, right up through the present in his impressive European debut with Project Echelon, Sam has stories to tell! And if you can't get enough here, then be sure to read what he's written at The Escape Collective in his Rookie R...
Sep 06, 2024•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 139
Welcome one of the world's very best at cyclocross (and pretty handy on all types of bikes), Joris Nieuwenhuis! Joris is a multi-time national champion of cyclocross for the Netherlands, he earned a silver medal at the 2023/24 UCI cyclocross world championships, he's raced the Tour de France twice, has won on the World Cup stage, and plenty of others. We met up in Sweden as we were taking part in the Grit n Grind gravel race as part of the world championships qualification. Follow along on Joris...
Aug 23, 2024•44 min•Ep. 138
Adam Roberge is on a tear. By my count, he's won the past three consecutive races, four out of the past five, plus plenty more to his tally this year alone. Today we'll talk about all the things you might imagine, the two of us racing together and landing in identical spots on consecutive weekends, how he got into cycling, what's happening with the general state of cycling in Canada, and his national championship win this year. We'll talk about the more controversial topics like using logic and ...
Jul 31, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 137
It’s July so it’s Tour de France time! I’m thrilled to have our guest on the podcast, Sam Bewley. A Tour de France rider himself, a Tour commentator and sports director, we're here to shed light on what's happening now two weeks into a very exciting Tour. Sam is a New Zealander living in Europe, courtesy of the bicycle. He won a world championship medalist on the track, then graduated to the World Tour and had a successful, lengthy, thirteen year career there. Sam is now a sports director with I...
Jul 15, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 136
Daniel Oss is the man. This long time World Tour professional raced on some of the biggest teams alongside some of the biggest names in the sport. From Liquigas to BMC to Bora-Hansgrohe to TotalEnergies, he was easy to pick out from the bunch with his rock-star long hair. He was also nearly always at the front and often pulling Peter Sagan along to victory. He's now a gravel privateer as well as a commentator for EuroSport, taking on UCI races as well as Unbound. Ted and Daniel were teammates fo...
Jun 26, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 133
Roger Brown has a fan club. He's a four time Unbound rider, has accumulated more than 800 miles across the Kansas plains (which marks a considerable portion of his lifetime mileage). He's a father of four, a co-owner of mine at UnTapped , and he back for another edition of Unbound and another podcast! If you enjoy this show, check out his previous three episodes number 113, 91, and 75. Also, check out AG1 by visiting drinkAG1.com/tedking to get your five free travel packs and a year's supply of ...
Jun 19, 2024•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 135
Your 2024 Unbound 200 men's champion, ladies and gentlemen! Lots to talk about in this episode as Lachlan and Ted chat for nearly 90 minutes on all things bikes. From Lachlan's entry into the sport, his tough time in the World Tour, Lachlan and Ted's shared time in gravel and its enigmatic future, and of course ample race analysis from Unbound. Follow Lachlan's wild exploits at @lachlanmorton And get your hands on some goodies from AG1 by visiting www.drinkAG1.com/ted While you're at it, get a f...
Jun 06, 2024•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 134
