For obvious reasons, I wouldn't be where I am today were it not for my dad. But that line goes well beyond the literal. My dad was tremendously supportive throughout my upbringing and that includes during and after he suffered a stroke on March 23, 2003. Fast-forward to 2021 and dad has just returned home after a two month stay in a rehab hospital after suffering yet another brain injury. Not fun, not good. But dad has a penchant for finding the good in a situation and this is no different. Part...
Mar 23, 2021•56 min•Season 1Ep. 72
Professional cyclist Ben King has had a lot on his plate lately. With the birth of his first child last fall, this stalwart of American cycling with twelve years in the professional ranks, still didn't know if he would have a contract for 2021. Covid threw everything up in the air of the already wild schedule for a World Tour cyclist, and no one knew where it was going to land. But Ben is back in Italy with his wife Jenna and baby Luca and the timing is absolutely bananas. That's professional cy...
Mar 04, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 71
Jack Thompson rides more in a week than most cyclists will do in a year. In fact, with the nickname "Ultra Cyclist", Jack holds the Guinness Book of World Records title of most distanced ridden in one week at 3500km! That's just the tip of the iceberg for Jack. Another unfathomable feat is that he's done three KOMs in three consecutive days in three different countries or the Taiwan KOM Challenge, four consecutive times in a row. But Jack is far more than just an ultra distance bike rider. His b...
Feb 10, 2021•1 hr 13 min•Season 1Ep. 70
Your Guide for a Great Winter Ride! This is a special one, welcome to King of the Ride podcast. Here we have return guest/sometimes-co-host Laura King and Ted talk about how to optimize your cold weather riding. You asked, we answered. After more than 1000 questions came pouring in, Laura and I summarized them and answer them today in this podcast. Here in Vermont, where the sun rises at lunchtime and sets a few minutes later, we need to make the most of our riding window and that takes lots of ...
Jan 19, 2021•1 hr 31 min•Season 1Ep. 69
In the world of ultra long distance cycling events, Jay Petervary has likely done the race, won the race, or set the course record. A pioneer in ultra endurance cycling in all facets of two wheels -- from gravel biking to mountain biking to an early foray in road cycling -- Jay knows how to cover massive distances in a short period of time. Looking back on the strange year that 2020 was, Jay and Ted discuss the direction both bikepacking and bikepack racing are going, his philosophies on each, h...
Dec 29, 2020•1 hr 36 min•Season 1Ep. 68
This is a very special episode as Laura King takes the mic and hosts our guest, Ted. Fielding questions submitted by you about the grueling 1,020 mile, self-supported Arkansas High Country Race that took place in late October and into November. Ted set the FKT (fastest known time) just a hair under 5 days in this nonstop affair. Sit down and enjoy this conversation to hear how he prepared for the gnarliest single event he's ever been part of. Arkansas High Country Official Site: here ....
Nov 17, 2020•1 hr 23 min•Season 1Ep. 67
Back by popular demand, my wife Laura King is a guest on today's show! We last caught up with Laura on episode 55 in early March when she was less than one week away from giving birth. So what are the first six month of motherhood like with little baby Hazel? Better yet, what's life like when we three Kings pack into a Sprinter van and hit the road for two months?! Listening to this podcast will help paint the picture into all of that and much much more. Bonus info: To learn all about our van li...
Oct 01, 2020•1 hr 13 min•Season 1Ep. 66
The list of accolades awarded to skiers doesn't get much more impressive than those belonging to Chris Davenport. Two-time world champion, X-Games medalist, Chris set an FKT on all of Colorado's 14ers and then all of Colorado's tallest 100 peaks. He's been in more than thirty ski movies by Matchstick Productions and Warren Miller, he's a commentator for ESPN, ABC, and Outside Television, plus he's pretty handy on a bike. Ted caught up with Chris in his hometown of Snowmass, Colorado where this c...
Sep 15, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 65
Chances are good that if you listen to this podcast, you know Payson McElveen or know of Payson McElveen. Professional mountain biker, professional gravelisto, media maven, fashion guru, collector of shoes, podcaster, Payson knows how to stay busy. With a quick visit to Durango on the cross-country trip for the Kings, they visited Payson and his girlfriend Nichole for a thorough high altitude fun weekend, whereupon Payson and Ted sat down to follow up on their first back-and-forth podcast with e...
Sep 01, 2020•1 hr 20 min•Season 1Ep. 64
Jess Cerra is a professional cyclist with a handful of other feathers in her cap (...or helmet). A published, professional chef and entrepreneur as the owner of JoJé Bars, Jess has raced at the highest level of women's cycling and recently made the transition to gravel. During the King family trip across the country, we visited Whitefish, MT for a trip to Jess's hometown where she showed us around the gravel scene in and around Glacier National Park. That was stunning. This conversation is stunn...
Aug 10, 2020•51 min•Season 1Ep. 63
Welcome to gravel! Angela Naeth's story is one of tenacity and fulfillment. With high highs and difficult lows, she shares her fascinating trajectory through the sport of triathlon which coincidentally has her lining up for the SugarCane 200 in January 2020. With health now on her side, Angela is at a point where she's writing the script to her story rather than having it written for her. 2020 is wide open for possibility and that allows more gravel in her travel. Despite the global pandemic tha...
May 26, 2020•51 min•Season 1Ep. 62
On a pleasant Friday afternoon in early May, Geoff and Ted cracked into bottles of Chimay beer, raised a glass, and sipped and chatted... from across a computer screen and across the country. At his US home in Truckee, CA, Geoff Kabush tells tales that are quite frankly of legend -- and that legend spans more than two decades of professional cycling. From his time at three Olympic games, to how it came to be that he went head to head against Yao Ming in 2008 in Beijing to how he came about with ...
May 11, 2020•58 min•Season 1Ep. 61
Holy moly, where does time go? Welcome to episode number 60 of King of the Ride podcast. And welcome a very special guest, professional mountain biker, 2x Olympian, Lea Davison! Lea is a Vermont native from Jericho, the very next town over from where Ted lives now. She's a perpetual body in motion, having ran in college, skied division 1 in college, earned a degree in college and then segued all of that into a professional mountain bike career. With podiums at two world championships, Lea is sti...
May 04, 2020•55 min•Season 1Ep. 60
In the latest round of covid 19-Questions, Ted and Toms are sitting in Vermont and Girona, respectively, catching up on what it's like from the perspective of a World Tour rider operating through coronavirus. Toms Skujins is known for his affinity for potatoes, for winning heroic stages of Tour of California, and for proudly wearing the KOM jersey in the Tour de France. This conversation ranges from how he got into cycling in Latvia, how he's holding up all cooped up in Spain, how he foresees th...
Apr 22, 2020•53 min•Season 1Ep. 59
Rebecca Rusch's accolades put her in a league of her own. This seven time world champion is back from a harrowing Iditarod Trail Invitational with stories to tell! This is a self-supported 350 mile race across the Alaskan wilderness in the heart of winter. This is the second of the covid... 19-Questions series and this one especially is greatly enhanced with a video component. If you have the ability to watch this podcast as a video cast, just head to this link for a colorful conversation. Big t...
Apr 16, 2020•1 hr 26 min•Season 1Ep. 58
Contemporary times call for a little restructuring, so amid coronavirus the King of the Ride podcast is introducing a new series featuring 19 hard hitting questions aptly titled The covid... 19-QUESTIONS! Will we get to all the questions? Only time (and listening) will tell. Tim is back with his second appearance on King of the Ride, with 50 episodes spanning the time between visits. Zoom back to episode 7 for his first time on air. Staying above it all in Canada, Tim is safe and sound as he cat...
Apr 06, 2020•1 hr 27 min•Season 1Ep. 57
Veteran pro, Laurens Ted Dam raced professionally from 2003 through 2019 for the likes of Rabobank, Lotto Jumbo, Sunweb, and CCC. But unlike many of his European professional cyclist counterparts, he's so full of energy, he wears his two young boys out! Now retired from the World Tour, Laurens and Ted catch up on all things that are part of the LTD lifestyle, which is "Live Slow Ride Fast". This budding entrepreneur has a coffee line, clothing line, host two gravel events, has a podcast, video s...
Mar 24, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 56
My better half, Laura King, is someone I mention often on this show. So it's probably no surprise that I've received a lot of suggestions that we should have her on the show! Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, Laura King to the King of the Ride podcast. This episode covers Laura's background, where she found her athletic drive and general tenacity that sparks her every day. It explores how she ended up in California and then how she's made the transition to the polar opposite part of the country now...
Mar 02, 2020•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 55
Meet Ashton. A two-time world record holder, once up a time the speediest man across Kansas, a Nebraskan by birth and world traveler by past time, Ashton Lambie carries the title bestowed upon him as The Most Interesting Cyclist in America quite well. Ted and Ashton once upon a time raced their first Dirty Kanzas against each other and this podcast took place on the eve of another great one, the Oklahoma Gravel Growler. The The World's Most Interesting Man drinks Dos Equis beer. What does Ashton...
Feb 17, 2020•47 min•Season 1Ep. 54
In his prime, Rahsaan Bahati was one of the fastest cyclist in America. Rahsaan’s entry into cycling is far from typical having grown up in Compton, California. Successful from very early on, this conversation covers his early days through the present, a time period where he celebrates the number ten quite well: the ten-time national champion with collegiate, road, and track titles is also celebrating the tenth anniversary of the organization he started, The Bahati Foundation, this year. Designe...
Feb 03, 2020•47 min•Season 1Ep. 53
If Ted could just get slightly more curly hair, when he throws on some ROKA aviators he and Jesse could be twins. Jesse is a Stanford graduate turned Red Bull sponsored professional Ironman triathlete turned owner/operator of Picky Bars. His story of getting to the big leagues involves a broken neck among other crazy anecdotes. And yes, Jesse took fastest known time in the dinosaur costume 5k at The Running Event in early December 2019. This podcast is a great one and we know you'll enjoy it! If...
Jan 20, 2020•1 hr 10 min•Season 1Ep. 52
Kimo Seymour is the President of Events and Media at Life Time. Perhaps it's because of his soft spoken and easy demeanor, Kimo seems to operate in the "speak softly and carry a big stick" school of leadership. As you have likely noticed in the cycling world and especially the gravel scene, Life Time is becoming a household name and Kimo is at the helm as this happens. Ted and Kimo sat down during the launch of Life Time's first event they've created in the gravel world, Big Sugar, to see what t...
Jan 06, 2020•47 min•Season 1Ep. 51
When João writes a memoir, I'll be the first in line to buy it. Sit down and enjoy this conversation with João and Ted as he unwinds a story from being an illegal immigrant to elite cyclist to the international publishing world back to the World Tour and to a handful of booming entrepreneurial endeavors in between. João's memory is a lobster trap -- he's got stories to tell! The good, the bad, and the ugly. Huge thanks go out to all my sponsors who make this ride possible: Cannondale, SRAM, Zipp...
Dec 10, 2019•1 hr 16 min•Season 1Ep. 50
What's a professional soigneur do? Do they rub legs and make small sandwiches? Do they spend thousands of hours driving across continents? Do they stand on the side of the road in France in July and get into arguments with police officers? Yes, they do this and so so much more! Welcome to the first King of the Ride episode with three guests simultaneously. On the eve of the Grand Prix Quebec City this September, Ted sat down with three soigneurs from the Education First pro cycling team. These t...
Nov 26, 2019•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 49
This was a long time coming! Payson and Ted are not long lost brothers, but they share a boatload of traits in common. Originally a Texas boy, Payson and Ted met up at the behind the scenes Big Sugar in their shakeout event before the inaugural ride in 2020. Now residing in mountain bike mecca, Durango, Colorado, Payson is a professional cross country mountain biker with a particular knack for marathon races, as he's a 2x national champion in that discipline. So "riding bikes off road for long p...
Nov 19, 2019•52 min•Season 1Ep. 48
Edward Hult is a cycling enthusiast. He’s also a big reason that EF Education First came on board to the UCI World Tour and beyond. As the CEO of EF North America, Edward and his brother made the decision to not just sponsor the team, but purchase the team outright. This conversation talks about the politics and geopolitics of sports, how and why cycling hit their radar, the highs and lows of owning a professional cycling team. Ted (an Edward himself) and Edward Hult caught up on the eve of The ...
Nov 04, 2019•52 min•Season 1Ep. 47
Kate Courtney backs up her first podcast on King of the Ride with yet another stunner! On the underslept and overserved day after Grinduro, Kate found some time to catch up with Ted to talk shop. And while the first show was riveting, this one goes much deeper into her motivation, her drive, her team, her goals, her entire psyche and what makes her tick. Kate is as eloquent as she is screaming fast on the bike. Let's remember Kate won her UCI World Champion title and went on the pod in 2018. She...
Oct 28, 2019•40 min•Season 1Ep. 46
On the recent heels of winning her seventh World Cup cyclocross victory (we think) in Madison, WI, Katerina Nash zipped out to Grinduro for a fun weekend playing around on the gravel whip. Kat is also one of very few people to win both World Cup cyclocross and World Cup mountain bike races, she dabbles in enduro mountain bike races, she consistently wins the brutally difficult BC Bike Race stage race, and just like this weekend of chatting, she puts a handful of gravel races into her schedule to...
Oct 07, 2019•43 min•Season 1Ep. 45
Mike Woods' is a bike racer, but Mike Woods is a storyteller! You probably know the traditional stuff -- he ran, he ran fast, he got tired of running, and became a Tour de France cyclists -- but there's so much more to learn about Mike. On the eve of his hometown World Tour races, Grand Prix Quebec City and Montreal, Ted and Mike sit down for a chat about bikes, world travel, and life beyond the peloton. After a podium finish at the 2018 World Championships Mike is building some great form going...
Sep 30, 2019•44 min•Season 1Ep. 44
Brent Bookwalter stands strong as America's longest running World Tour professional cyclist. Not just along for the ride, Brent has won UCI races, was second to Bradley Wiggins in the opening stage of the Giro, and even helped Cadel Evans win the 2011 Tour de France. Longtime friends, Brent and Ted have had careers run in tandem to each other. Teammates on the US national team, teammates on domestic pro teams, they migrated to Europe together, and even lived together in their early time racing a...
Sep 16, 2019•40 min•Season 1Ep. 43
