When most choose to hang up their wheels after a career on the World Tour, Ted King choose something else. Ted choose to spear head a new movement in cycling.
A counter cultural off-road cycling movement - Gravel.
Ted has defined this new genre and continues to push boundaries and shape the sport we love.
Show Links:
www.patreon.com/anthony_walsh
Ted's Nutrition Company https://untapped.cc/
Ted's tips on what tyres to use https://www.renehersecycles.com/ted-kings-tips-for-choosing-gravel-tires/
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So, Let Ted Ryan was a very cool and heartwarming show of support from from racers from you know, folks who like Lance Armstrong was he called out he called me that night and said hey do you want me to try to fight this for you? It was wild and all said and done I think largely because I don't have a French passport I was cordially asked to leave. The big question is this. How do we use cycling as a tool to improve our health, our happiness and our longevity? That is the question, this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Walsh and welcome to the Roadman Podcast. What's going on, you beautiful roadmen, welcome back to the Roadman Podcast. The feedback to that last episode with Tyler Hamilton was insane. If you haven't checked out the Tyler Hamilton episode, it's the one just before that. It's totally worth going back to listen to. I can load them, love them. You can't but admire the openness, the transparency and the honesty. And yeah, he just opened up on the podcast and yeah, it was brilliant to be a part of it. Today's guest I'm so excited about. I unapologetically will call him the King of Gravel, Ted King. He's had a glamorous glitzing pro-torque career before making the step over the off-road. And I think now he's a part of something that's very important. He's a part of the move from cycling from an elite sport where we win at all costs to a participatory sport, much like the transition that running went through in the 1980s when the transition from track and field to a mass participation in Martins. And I think events like Dirty Kanza, Leadville, Ted is right at the forefront of this transition. It's super interesting chat from a very interesting phony and articulate guy. So I'm looking forward to bringing you that before I do, I'd encourage you to jump on over to our Patreon account. It's patreon, P-A-T-R-E-O-N dot com forward slash Anthony underscore watch. The Patreon account, the idea of it is if you're enjoying this content, it's your way to just say, you know what, I enjoyed the content, I'd like to buy a coffee, I'd buy a beer. And for me, what it does is it helps me keep getting these guests, it helps me cover the costs of running this podcast. And it just helps this whole ecosystem grow. So jump on over to patreon.com and check that out. It would be much appreciated. Without any further ado, let's jump into it. So Ted King, welcome to the Roadman Podcast. This is awesome. Thank you very much for having me. Ted, I'm looking forward to just talking some random cycling stuff for you today. Sure, yeah. That sounds like my life in so many words. There's a whole lot of random cycling. It's a good way to describe gravel cycling, but I don't even want to start a gravel cycling. I want to just throw back a little bit to the first time. I'm a bit of a cycling anorac, but I suppose I'm not enough of a cycle anorac that I'd know every domestic in the peloton back in the day anyway. I couldn't tell you, you know, six or seven to best eat gifts for a quick step at the moment. You know, I know the hoylide stuff, but sure, you first came to my attention. I was a struggling country rider in the US and I was recovering from an injury and I was on the couch in Toronto and I was looking at Twitter and I seen trending Let's head Roy it. And I was like, what the hell is this? Let's head Roy it. Do you want to start there and tell us what that was? Sure. So that would have been July of 2013. Um, I was at my first tour de France and, uh, yeah, I was teammates with Peter Sagan. We were, we were going into stage one, trying to put him in the jersey and a, in a sprint stage, um, ended up breaking, um, breaking myself in so many words. What did I do? I broke my scapula. I had a road rash all over ended up Man, what did I do broke a handful of ribs anyway? So totally messed up any other race in the world They would have gone home, but being that this is my first tour I Soldered on as best I could get up to stage four was a team time trial in Nice and Given that the extent of my injuries I couldn't get into a traditional time trial position My shoulder was totally wrecked. So for better or worse, I did the team time trial on a road bike with clip-ons. Actually, I remember that. Oh, frickin' brutal. And I mean, it's so, odds were so horribly against me. Like we call it a 30K time trial. And the first 800 meters were through downtown Nice and the rest was just wide open, like full gas, you know, zero percent technical. Got dropped straight out of the gate because I can't stand and I can't sprint. Ended up doing the whole team time trial on a road bike at 28 miles an hour, which I was in hindsight quite pleased with.
That's pretty good. But long story short, I get through the finish line, Orca Greenhead sets the Tour de France fastest ever team time trial time, thereby, because of the percentage of the winner's time, time cut. Time cut from the Tour de France by about seven seconds. It's like 24% or something TTT. Yeah, some like that. So Let Ted Ryan was a very cool and heartwarming show of support from racers, from folks who, like Lance Armstrong, was he called me that night and said, hey, do you want me to try to fight this for you? It was wild. And all said and done, I think largely because I don't have a French passport, I was cordially asked to leave. It's the problem with those discretionary rills, isn't it? Where, you know, you see it all the time in the tour, the hometown decisions. Mm hmm. Yeah. I mean, it's love it and hate it, you know, it makes the sport so cool. And then when it's cruel and the rules are against you, it's a real bummer. And you read some that period of your life world tour, how it all came to an end? I mean, I continued to race from there. That particular anecdote was certainly painful. It was tough for a variety of reasons. My dad had a stroke in 2003 and getting to Europe has been difficult. My mom is my dad's caregiver. I mean, he's severely physically handicapped. He is so, you know, it's tough for them to get to Europe. They came to that race, which was the first and only European race they ever came to. So it was ironic that they had skipped the first three days because they were in Sardinia. The race was in Sardinia and then, or sorry Corsica. And so they came to nace the day that I was asked to leave. It's just, you know, that's insulting. Oh, I saw this. Was it like, was there like a US TV crew, Philip? Yeah, you're just like crestfall and like I'm barely going worse together. Sure. Good memory. Yeah, it was awful. I mean, sitting down to the interview, I didn't think I was going to be so shaken up. And you know, they basically say like, hey, Ted, can you walk us through it? Or, you know, just so many emotions come out because of the support my parents have had in my career. And there they are that I can't race. And I remember telling them in the interview before it started like, hey, if I start crying, like, we just cut. But of course, that's pure Hollywood gold. Because I was on the couch. I had a broken, I came down on a bunch of sprint. I'm not, I was never a sprinter, but my team didn't turn up to, I don't know, some crazy Detroit or something. So I was coming from Toronto, they were coming from Chicago and they had problems. So I ended up just getting the sit on the back of the healthcare train, thinking I was a bit of a sprinter. And I done this on Saturday, I think, and I was like, easy prize money all as you know, was following the lead out man and like wasn't even sprinting and making prize money. And I was like, I'll do it again on the Sunday and massive punch sprint crash. And I broke my collarbone, scapula, ribs. And I was sitting on the couch in Toronto, like all my bones broke watching this interview you. And I was thinking, that poor cunt. Yeah, it sucked, man. From there to the end of your world's horror career, we'll call it career part one. And you regret without a planned out? No. I mean, I raised 10 years professionally, three in the US domestic scene and everything. My entire career, I got into this board of cycling late, and my whole career just sort of was a door opening, and I jumped through it, very little expectation. So, when I had the offer to go to Europe, I said, wow, this is huge, let's go do that. You know, your career was so cool, like from Bissell to Cervelo, a team which was probably light years ahead of, it was at the time, and I almost, I don't want to gloss over all that, but I can nearly do a tri-air podcast with you. I want to get into the juicy gravel stuff. Yeah. But I definitely want to get a flavor of like, That last sort of year of your career, are you still fighting for contracts? Or are you still kind of thinking, you know, times when I'm up on this one? No, I mean, I was very, I felt content knowing that I could continue to race. So like I was saying, I've raced for 10 years pro, seven in Europe, and then there I am early in 2015, and I'm looking around at that point, we were, Cannondale Garmin, or Garmin Cannondale, whichever sponsor order it was. And I was the third oldest person on the team. We're super young team, I'm looking around, I'm like, I'm only 32 years old thinking, you know, how long do I wanna do this?
I got teammates here out here who are 38, 39. Could I do this for another 10 years? Do I want to? And then at like a 35,000 foot level, I'm thinking, okay, I'm single, it's really difficult to like settle down and find a American spouse and only, and not that I'm trying to find an American spouse. but I'm only in America for a couple weeks a year and then I'm just globetrotting the rest of the time. Like when do I actually settle down? But isn't this the part that no one sees? Like your dad's at home sick is about, everyone thinks they're all sporting decisions. Yeah, totally. It's a total goofy mix. So sorry to cut to the chase. I felt content and I could continue to race but I wanted to wrap up my professional career happy about cycling. So I'm just basically with still the smile on my face and proud of what I'm doing instead of getting to the November and not having a contract and thinking, well, shoot, I guess this is my retirement. And so I talked to some close friends and family and confidants. And I said, you know, this is going to be my last year. I announced it right before tour of California. And it just, it made for a really cool final year at 2015, like, you know, red carpet rolled out whenever we went to an event. A really cool way to say goodbye to, to pro cycling. It's a really nice way to, to finish it off. I chat to Steve Comings and he had the exact opposite experience where he was going to tour of Britain, thinking, you know what, I'm in the shape of my life, 30, eight years old, I think at the time, but thinking, if I put on a show in tour of Britain, I can definitely get a contract for next year. And then he crashed on like stage two at a tour of Britain or something. Yeah. Which is nuts. Like Steve Cummings, come on, man. Like he should be, but you know, he should have contract covers left, right, and said, this is what I was thinking. I was saying to him, I was like, Steve, how are you going to tour of Britain? Like the last chance, Saloon, it's like, you know, it's 10 to, it's 10 to 3am and the nightclub there and you're looking around looking for a girl like I was like how is this happening Steve comments like they have 10 15 years of data on you they know like you want to tour the front stages bike racing man it's crazy short memories and so that period then from your sort of your finishing lap where everyone knows you're finishing up it's you know high fives all around in your head are you thinking you know what this is my career over or are you thinking, you know, what this is the start of something really cool. Did you have that oil on gravel at the time? No, absolutely not. It was very much the former. It was something of a rarity in the world tour in that I have a college degree. And certainly, what have you got? I mean, I studied economics and math and Unless it's not you know, there's no guarantees with that However, there is something that that that does make you different Among the world tour so you know I Have expected to go to Wall Street because that's what most people who with my degree from the school that I went to do post College I of course occupied the next ten years with the bike raisin So, you know who knows I was thinking in some capacity I would end up in the finance world But as time evolved in 2015, a couple of long time sponsors of the teams that I had been on said, hey, you know, there is bike riding beyond bike racing. We'd be interested in working with you. Do you want to pursue that? So, you know, first and foremost, that was Cannondale. I'd ridden on Cannondale bikes for the previous five years. And the term ambassador is Is I think overused? I don't know. It's every experience. I would influence or now to get a free set of sunglasses and ambassador. So goofy like I load the word but there is somebody to be said about that is what I what they were you know basically offering to me. So using that as a foundation you know picked up a handful of other meaningful partners companies that I instead of. like being on a pro team and being forced to use product X, Y and Z to actually go and proactively choose the companies that I wanted to work with. Because at that point, like ambassador and especially this gravel racing thing was non-existent. I mean, even in 2015, like the term gravel was next to non-existent. I did a presentation. 2015 exactly I did this Independent of the pandemic in which we're in there is a Cycling what do they call it? It was like a digital worldwide conference so instead of being at Euro bike or inner bike It was an online platform and I was brought out as a present as a presenter And so of course naturally I did my presentation on gravel And I ended up getting some really cool stats from some event registration sites and speaking to this exact point, the term gravel was used in 2% of search terms in 2014 for events and now it's like 40% of cycling events in North America.
So, are you getting free, not to delve too much into your personal financial situation and tell me to piss off if you want to. How difficult is it to get cash out of these sponsors at the time for something that is completely on pre-oven. It was easier than getting blood from a rock is a funny expression that somebody used recently. I have an agent, Joao Kurea. He has been my agent for my final three years racing. We were teammates on the Cervilla Test Team. He's a longtime friend and trusted confidant. He continues to work with me in retirement and he represents the current champion, Mads Peterson. They have a huge cadre of, not huge, they have a tight list of incredible riders who are all in the young mid-20s and then the only people they represent outside of who are retired are myself and Jans Voigt. That's a pretty decent company to be in. That's pretty cool. Yeah. You know, he does the talking, he does the negotiating. I guess in short, it's easier said than done to make a living out of it. No one sponsor could support what I'm doing, but collectively it makes for a pretty decent income. But it's funny when you say retired, like it's for me as a cyclone fan looking in from outside, I almost see your role now in the formative years of gravel and the public awareness of gravel has been way more important than your role of Shepherd and Saigon back then. Because for me, gravel is accessible. You know, clients we're working with, like, you know, 50 years old, 10, 15 kilos overweight, I can go and tell them to go and do dirty cans. Like, we've clients that went and done dirty cans last year, and they see you there and they're right in which they can't go do to criterium the Dauphinae with you. It's like watching, I think I was talking about last podcast with Steve Cummings where I'm saying the world tour, it's just like watching Avengers. It doesn't seem real. And I think that's just exacerbating. You and I recently talked to Ian Boswell, he's a neighbor up here, so to speak. And he's wrapped it up last year, so he's closer to the world tour than I am now five years removed. And I mean, even he is saying it's that much more cutthroat and like, you know, guys are using ketones day in and day out and everybody's in the wind tunnel and everybody's looking for like marginal, marginal, marginal gains. So yeah, the world tour is just in a league of its own right now. Gravel is that tangible part of cycling. And I guess, you know, not the gloss over when I was in the world tour, like it was still it was cut throughout and it's intervals all day every day and it's you know you train hard and you recover easy and you pay attention to every little aspect of life you say just live cycling 24-7 that is the lifestyle that I retired from whereas now gravel as much as it is a racing career so to speak it it's fun it's a beer after the race it is it is talking during the race it is you know I use it Hackney in term. It's just it is all about the community, which is so cool and then glow Grand scheme of things. Do you ride your bike every day? It's pissing rain right now, so I won't be riding today Yeah, I mean I that's what's nice too, right like I ride when I want to ride I don't ride when I don't want to ride Yeah, I ride a freaking boatload and it's it's truly because I love riding a bike You still have a coach and use performance management charts and TSS and monitor stuff like this? Absolutely not. You know, which is ironic because I have a very small coaching business. A coach half dozen athletes and you know, there's funny contracts because I'm imparting the knowledge that I've gained over my career and I know the value of having a coach, but I most certainly do not have one myself. Yeah, but it's like that if I go really with a client or something, you know, you're telling them to make sure you eat every 20 minutes and they're like, well, you haven't eaten in three and a half hours. And you're like, like, look, listen, just do what I say, not what I do. Exactly. I'll say it. The gravel races, some of them are just crazy epic. And I know there's a bunch of people listening now and they're like, they don't know. Like, look, we know. Ruby Flanders, flesh alone. We know the classics. You know, the most watch ones, the most go and see ones. What's the most go and see or the most do races and gravel? You know, Dirty Kansas certainly implanted itself as like the granddaddy of gravel races. You know, and it's funny because it's not 20 years old. It's probably 14, 15 years old now. But it's just grown so exponentially. So starting with 34 people now at, you know, 3,400 or something. That's crazy on the start line.
It's 3,400 dude, so. It is. It's wild. when we're starting in these small towns, dirty Kansas especially, and like to think of how many people are lined up throughout the course, and how many people are snaking throughout the 200 miles or 100 or 50 miles. It is wild. You know what, like you know when you line up on like a cut one criteria or a pro-criteria or a pro-karmass or whatever, you at least know what the people around you have, the same skill, fitness proficiency ballpark that you have. like you're not gonna get some boiled cod four in a pro-car mess in Belgium. Sure. Is that a worry that you're coming flying down into the fourth section and you're like, this dude was on his fourth sport if? No, I don't worry about it at all. And certainly there are dangers in gravel, but having come from racing at classics, schedule year in and year out, like that's dangerous. I always call that square peg ground hole. Like when you try to put 200 people on a goat path that's eight feet wide and everybody wants to be in the first two rows, like that's dangerous racing. Racing gravel, you know, which are speeds considerably lower and I don't know, you're able to shake it out so that you're in the group that you're meant to be in very quickly. You can shake people when you wanna shake them and chances are if they're dangerous in front of you, you say, okay, I'm gonna move her on this guy. Yeah. How interesting is Ted King? Let's just take a collective exhalation and relax for a minute and just reset. Take your phone out and head on over to patreon.com forward slash Anthony Underskall watch. If you're enjoying the podcast, if you're loving this content, that's the way to just say, you know what, if you were hanging out together, I'd boy you a beer for a facility in these stories. That's the way you say thanks and that's the way you keep this content common week after week. Now, let's get back to the show and more from Ted King. What do you make it a kind of trend that a world thrower boy is coming over to Gretel? There's a good part of it that does grit at me and I can appreciate anyone calling a kettle black here and saying I'm doing the same thing. What I did in 2016, on a whim, I was asked to do dirty cans in 2016 and I did it and I was like, oh man, this is super cool. And I appreciated the, whether you finished first or last or anything in between, like there is a party atmosphere and that's a blast. It's not doing intervals, it's not training the way I used to train, it's not focusing on diet and, you know, FTP tests and and I'm not promoting alcohol consumption, but yeah, like have a freaking beer at the end of the race. And you know what, have a beer in the middle of the race if someone presents a ticket. So it's, world tour riders are so much a league of their own. So if they retire and come on over, that's cool. To put some of these gravel races in the middle of their race calendar when they're fresh off Perry Nice and getting ready for the Tour de France and they're gonna try to do some gravel. And if they are gonna start duking out, then like all they're doing is proving that they're already, that they're stronger than everybody else, which we know in the first place. And so in a way, it's almost like a lose-lose. Or, I mean, I shouldn't say that because I don't wanna sound like such a hater. Like it is awesome to bring more attention to gravel. It's really cool to be able to line up with these pros who are in two, three weeks lining up to the Tour de France. However, if they are gonna make it cut throughout, like we could have very easily seen last year of Dirty Canza in the entire world to repel a podium. And it's just like, well, yeah, we get it. So it was, that's what made it super cool to see Colin Strickland win DK last year. Well, for as a spectator, me, that's what's quite annoying. Like, I don't know the guys, and I'm sure they're lovely guys like the EF boys that turn up. But it's, it's more when you think about gravel, I think about something that's counter, counter-cultural. And there's something a little bit edgy there. It's something not playing with the rails like, like fucking trow on arrow bars in the middle of a bunch of strikes, like do what the fuck you want, stop drink beers, do what you want, bring your phone in your pocket. And then the world tour boys are not exact and this is not like, it's like how far as your seat post behind your button bracket, your side tips, like fuck off. Right, right, right, right, sock height and you know, the riders in the world who don't want those, all of those rules, they don't care about sock height, They don't care about how many centimeters your saddle is from your bottom bracket.
And that is part of the lure and part of the invitation and part of the fun of gravel. And so they can escape for a weekend or a day or whatever it is. Again, if you're just proving it as a fitness contest, like we get it, you're fitter than us. Are we moving towards more structure from the gravel organizers? Do they have the structure to stuff now? I mean, that's a really tough question. My wife and I have an event. We have an event the first week in August. Last year was the first year. It's called Rooted Vermont. And we're in the same boat. How do you accept teams? Like if a team of eight pro riders shows up, like that's sort of a bummer on the same time. Like you want teams and you want notoriety and you want fast people and you want a lot of the things that have both the positive and negative. There are certain things that I am against. For example, I am against AroBars for a variety of reasons that we don't need to get into. Like I don't want to see AroBars in an event. I love how a lot of gravel events have adopted, they'll adopt their own rules to make it fit their event, but the first rule in gravel is often don't be lame. So it just, you know, it leaves the onus on the rider. Like you don't want to do something that's going to leave you to be like this, this, you know, socially ostracized person from the gravel scene, because you made a dumb decision. And that's kind of how I feel about the arrow bars. Like yeah, you know, we're faster. We all know it or faster. Like we don't need to go into the wind tunnel on a gravel road to know that, like, but you just look like such a dick. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, like a time trial and a team time trial are so inexplicably awful. So like let that be where arrow bars live and let gravel be, be the fun, comfortable part of the sport. Yeah. I agree with that. Yeah. But say you have like, I say I don't mean to pro, but I do mean to pro. You can tell me to piss it off. Otherwise, what's the probably's money like for winning a dirty cancer? Approximately zero dollars. Okay. They're a handful of events that have prize money. So Dirty Canza does a belt buckle, you know, and it's priceless. It's one of a kind. It's handmade. It's super cool. Cowboy hats, bottles of beer, bottles of local hooch, bottles of wine are common. Cowboy hats are very cool. You know, honestly, I think racing for art that's one of a kind is as cool as anything. Honestly, I think that's a great move as well because we're always going with that was like, you know, if there's 5 grand 10 grand prize for winning dirty Kanza like then do we need to start skan and boyks for hidden motors? Do we need to start dope control over the place? It's a can of worms that I don't know what we open up. Yeah, it's a really good question there are events that do have prize money and You know what I say is like I will never say no to a check if I'm lucky enough to be on the podium and take home a check what I'm also perfectly happy without prize money in gravel. It does make it hyper-competitive to a degree that makes me a little bit anxious. So yeah, we're in a very formative part of gravel now. And what we see this year is going to be different than next year. It's going to be different than 10 years from now. So we want to keep the good parts great. and we want to basically eliminate the parts that are going to bring the sport down. Well it's even like I'm not sure how I feel about, actually forget how I feel, how do you feel about Wahoo Frontiers team? I generally like the people on the team. Oh no, that's touching the question. And I shouldn't even say that I love the people on the team. I love the people who are coming to gravel. Teams in general make me anxious, but I also just don't get it because like, if you have multiple people on it, like I want to win a race. I can never picture myself being on a team because as much as team components are a huge part of traditional road racing, like call me selfish. I want to be on the podium. So I wouldn't necessarily want to be on a team where I want my teammate on the podium. Like I want to win and everybody who I'm duking it out with weekend and week out of the crowd versus they want to win. So, and I think, and that extends to your question. Like if Pete and Ian are in a race together, they're racing against each other. Yeah, but Artie, because we've seen Alex Haus and Lachlan last year and they're doing our world torting, tried it off on the front.
And I go to tell Beer the TV, it's like fuck off. Right. I mean, that's a really good point, really good topic. Like, I think for those guys coming to Leadville, coming to Dirty Canza last year, like, they are purely having fun because that is, it's a way to escape amid an otherwise very frantic world tour schedule. Dot, dot, dot. I don't know. Yeah. It, it, teams do make me anxious in the, in the grand scheme of gravel. Let's change gear a little bit, something when I was researching the podcast, which I didn't know about you. You have your own nutrition company. Oh, yeah. I didn't know it. Do you not sell it over here in Ireland? Now, international distribution is something that we're investigating. We have actually, in your neck of the woods, Ireland and the UK is where we have most of our inquiries about where people can get it. So we are, the company is called Untapped. We are based in maple syrup. So as opposed to brown rice syrup or maltodextrin or, you know, a laundry list of really cheap, crappy sugars that are the base of 99% of sports nutrition. Maple syrup is a categorical superfood. It has all of the macro nutrients that you're looking for in sports nutrition. And then from there, we only use real ingredients. And we're never going to use natural flavors. You're never going to use artificial flavors. You purely use the real thing. So like, we wanted a caffeinated maple product, so we purely put coffee into maple syrup. It is out of this world. And yeah, I mean, it's a cool story the way it started. It was, I used to, because I'm from New England, where maple syrup is native here in the United States, people knew me back in the day when Twitter was the largest form of social media, as the maple syrup guy. So I would like literally step off the bus at the gyro or Perry Nice or the spring classics and people would hand me small bottles of maple syrup. That's cool. Which is freaking amazing. I mean, it's like expensive to ship, it's expensive to buy and you're up in the first place. So I would be home at training and I would take a nip of maple syrup before a ride or during a ride or after a ride and then take a gel on the ride. I'm thinking to myself, why am I taking this gel that I don't like mid-ride? when I'm gulping the maple syrup after their ad and they're both sugars, like, there's gotta be a solution here. So, did a little bit of research, tried to start a company for a couple years, that didn't work, but then a mutual friend of mine, and ultimately my business partners said, hey, you gotta talk to the Cochrane's, the Cochrane's are this family of Olympic Alpine skiers who are producing maple syrup. So it's not, I know, Jason, since lawyer. No, no, no, no. I have to glove the fit you must acquit. And yeah, started this company untapped. So we're selling maple syrup. You know, I was giving a club talk. I was a few months ago and after the club talk, I got an email of power, power, power, power. And they were basically giving out shit to me because I was saying, like, don't eat this crap. I was like, if you can't pronounce the stuff on the back of the label, I had a pair of our gel and I was like, read the ingredients on the back of this. This word has 42 letters in it. It's not a real word. Multi- Oh, okay. And it's like, they give that to astronauts. It's not real food. Like we don't have to eat that. And I've actually been looking for something. This sounds like a mad, it's full sponsored podcast from on top table. This is perfect. Or planned. I only actually stumbled across it. And you think it was a Belgian waffle flip or something I've seen on YouTube. Yeah, it's a fruit waffle. We, uh, I mean, same thing. Like I would have a stupwaffle and I'm racing the classics in Belgium and you think, okay, this is good. You flip it over and you see all these ingredients that really don't make sense. And even like the word natural flavors, there's nothing natural about it. So here in the United States, if you're going to put anything on your waffle, you put maple syrup on your waffle. It is delicious. It is amazing. So every time I'd have a stupa off home, like, why is this butter flavored? See, I live the Canada for a while. Oh, there you go. Exactly. I'm addicted to the shit. That's so good. So we are, we made the only stupa off all that is sweetened exclusively with maple syrup. We got a coffee, a lemon, a chai, raspberry, and then it's, we use only the real ingredient, real chai spices, real coffee, real raspberry is real lemon. It is out of this world. Then, I mean, go back to your point of like these non-pronounceable ingredient lists. Even the word citric acid, the term citric acid, is in so much food in the United States, and it's often in lemon flavored items.
But people don't realize that citric acid has an ingredient is derived from corn. Its fermented corn has the flavor of lemons, and that is put into lemon flavored foods because it's cheap, and people think it's lemons. Yeah, I just don't trust stuff the bacteria doesn't eat like if you can leave there and the bacteria doesn't even eat it like You know, I don't want to touch it correct Talk to me about nutrition and the lockdown. We're in I'm not sure are using full lockdown mode over there We are largely locked down We're in a very very rural part of the states so we can get out we can go ride But yeah, no communal Gavin the gathering We're like prisoners over here at the moment, so everyone is full gas on Zwift. So when I finish any sort of session on Zwift, I have a puddle of sweat like you wouldn't believe, leakin' down. I live in the apartment shop as below. I can only imagine those people getting doused in my sweat as they're curoned for their groceries. Oh, that's foul. What are we taking and electrolyte replacements on these indoor sessions? Should it change from outdoor? Man, that is a good question. I mean, I don't nerd out on the science of electrolyte replacement. I'm in the same boat. I'm riding indoors, I don't know, once, twice a week. And I sweat profusely. I consume more hydration. Untapped of course does have a hydration component. We have a drink called Mapleade. So you know over the course of an hour ride, I'll probably drink a bottle and a half whereas because it's still cool outside If I'm gonna go right outside a bottle and a half would probably take me three hours to consume. Yeah So yeah, I mean I've just always been about like the macro of nutrients of consumption of nutrition like yeah You're sweating you're sweating more than normal. Okay, then you probably consume more than normal Yeah, you wouldn't completely narrow down, be weighing yourself precession, weighing your fluid, weighing your cello session. Oh, geez. It's a world tour thing, is it? It's a world tour thing. A world tour thing. Er, someone's getting into gravel at the moment, I've bunched a client's the moment and are getting into gravel and one of the questions I'm getting all the time. And I actually haven't, I love gravel and I love the idea and I take my road bike off riding, off crazy trails all the time, but I haven't got a gravel specific bike at the moment. for me as well. What's the goob star chart getting into gravel bike? Man, I mean, I have, I've spent a lot of time over the years on the Cannondale Super X, which is, you know, originally it was designed for a cyclocross. It's a cyclocross race bike. It's super light. It's got enormous clearance. And I think Cannondale has always really done a good job of creating bikes big clearance. Like my first road bike in retirement was it was 2016 it was a disc road bike and I could fit 32s on that which that's a large for a road bike five years ago. And then yeah, extrapolate that to a cyclocross bike where you can easily put on 38s, 40s, 42s. Is the wider the tire that you can put on a bike in and basically the more capable it's gonna be. Is car but as importance? Eh, hit or miss. I mean, there are plenty of great aluminum bikes. So frame material is less important. Yeah, I would go back. The two things that I always hit on are wider tires and then wider gear ranges. So yeah, when you're going up some crazy steep embankment, like the gearing has been so opened up, like SRAM Eagle with the 1050 rear. like it's crazy. It's so gnarly. And then with a wide tire, you have such grip on the ground that you can be going at like glacial speeds, but you can still make it up these these basically previously impossible pitches. And what's the one boy performing like I know and put the Irish pro team, Aquablus sport. My buddy was the director sporty for that and stay road one boy with was a treaties boy at the time on the road and they fucking hated it like they drop their chains so much no kidding yeah I don't know what the catcher set up there he is and they're about the other hated it that's hilarious ah no like I mean it's especially ironic because we're riding way way way rougher roads and I can't think of a single time especially on a one by that I've dropped a chain. I don't know if it's the clutch. One potential difference is clutch or the tension that a rear derailer could put with such a huge gear range could provide enough tension that a road gearing would not necessarily have because you do need a wider range that you're gonna have on a gravel bike than you would on a road bike. When I said you're coming on the podcast to a couple of people, everyone's like the number one question. I'm sure your fed up asking is tortoises and just because so many people asked it on I don't even want you to mention tortoises.
I'm like fuck off it's like you're writing down a road use a fucking narrow set of toys if you're writing in some narrowly shit use some narrowly tours. That conveniently is the exact answer that I do give so let's make it sponsor compliant. I'm sponsored by a company called Renee Harris H-E-R-S-E and depending on how adept you you are linking things. I have a blog that basically describes this exact thing, but their tire choices are so simple. They have a huge range of slick tires, and so is wide as 55C and as narrow as 28. And then they have one tread pattern for everything else in a variety of widths. So it goes back to my point, like, wider is better. So basically, put the widest tire you can on your bike. And then if you're riding wet, muddy, snowy, gnarly stuff, then you have tread. If you're going to ride something that doesn't necessarily require tread, then just do the widest slick you can. Yeah, if you ping me a link in a DM or something to it, I'll stick it into the show notes and people can geek out on it. Geek out all day. Perfect. I like it. Just to get to the broader ones. Do you think you'll always cycle? Does it contribute to your happiness? Yeah, it definitely does. I mean, I've pondered like if cycling was taken away from me. And I think this in the context of my dad having a stroke and so many things being torn away from him. And he just, he still exudes this incredible positivity that he has everywhere in the world to be angry and bitter and down about. I try to think that I could have the same perspective. I mean cycling has given me a job a life the past 15 years of my life a spouse the roof over my head Oh, you found a girl found a girl. She American Conveniently or coincidentally I should say she rides a bike so she understands my my infatuation with the sport Yeah, American girl. How'd you meet her? I? want a bike ride mutual friends birthday party and it was a bike riding food goblin party and Food goblins. Super Bowl ever since. Yeah, it's the only goblin So Yeah, I don't know how I Know I could operate without bike without the bike in my life. I Just prefer to not picture that world What's your day look like at the moment? Just any day in particular? Yeah, just a normal day. So we have a one month and 13 day old child. Month and a half old child. Congratulations. Thank you. Laura will wake up two, three times in the night to feed little baby hazel, leaving me to sleep pretty soundly through the night. So that come five in the morning when Hazel's waking up and starting to stir, I'm downstairs at probably 5am, taking care of Hazel for a couple hours, then start banging out emails. Untapped is a huge part of what I do, so doing a whole lot of the marketing and athlete relationships and content creation and communication and emails that largely falls in my lap. Interactive and sponsors probably now more more than ever so that amid a year or a season that might not happen, basically making sure that sponsors are happy with the stuff that I'm doing and creating and talking about and producing. Check the weather because we got some Irish-like weather here every now and again. Find that nice window of time to get out on the bike. If it's a short day, then spend some time on the trainer indoors. And food is a very important aspect of life here. So come five o'clock, it's time for happy hour with the wife and start settling down and create some sort of meal. And I'm actually exhausted by the time Hazel is going to bed at 8.30 and I'm usually going to bed soon thereafter. You're kind of plugging off social media and stuff after a five o'clock. I Try to unplug I'm probably as guilty as anyone of you know continuing flipping through some feed I feel like I Don't know if it's selfish. I feel like I'm a producer of content rather than a consumer like I actually don't scroll through all that often so it's It's more like the churn of me thinking of the next thing I need to produce or the next It's a story I want to tell or the next blog I want to write or so forth. I think that's the exact same way. So I have a YouTube channel that I started. I just kind of had it for a while, but it was nothing really going on it. So I started at New Year. I said, you know what? I'm going to put my head down on YouTube. And now I'm kind of like you on that, my girlfriend will be saying, like, why are you watching so much YouTube? And I'm actually not watching it with a consumer's mindset. I'm watching it with a producer's mindset going, oh, shit, that's a cool shot angle. That's a cool idea for you for YouTube channel as well, don't you?
Yeah, yeah, I mean, now more than ever is the content creation. Last year, a very good friend of mine, Ansel Dickie, who's a former pro cyclist turned market maven. He said, hey, I got a camera. I can shoot some content, which sounds ridiculous. And I hate to keep on using the word content. He has the most tremendous eye for both seeing an event and seeing a race and and then putting it to a film. So we've created this series of races. He came to probably a half dozen races last year. And you know, it's capturing what the whole weekend is about the races are definitely a big aspect of it, but seeing like the travel logistics or the family logistics or, you know, how to find a good coffee shop, just the most basic stuff. Yeah, I was gonna ask you a production call. It's very good because I'm up, my channel's way smaller than yours. I'm up at like, I think close to 8,000 subs or something now, but I'm doing a lot of it myself. gone more like real good vlog style. Yeah. It's hard. Like it's time consuming. Oh my god. It's so kind of consuming. Yeah. I mean, quick plug. It's called King of the Ride. And then I completely empathize with you because amid this lockdown, I have a podcast as well. Traditionally, always, it's done face to face, except now we can't do face to face stuff. So it's over the screen. As a result of that, I'm doing video casts. And I'm doing all the editing for the video cast. And my God, that's a lot of work. And you know what, the funny thing is, we've been chatting for a while, 50 minutes or something now. And it's taken us 50 minutes to do this. Can you imagine if we produced a 50 minute YouTube video? It would take six months. Exactly. It would be insane. It's at least the best place for people to follow you. I am all things that I am Ted King. So I am Ted King.com. I am Ted King on the Twitter, the Facebook, the Instagram, and then also King of the Ride on YouTube. And on TAPT. And on TAPT.cc. Here in the United States and probably over across the world and throughout Europe and the UK and so on and so forth and Ireland. Are you shipping to the world? No. Well, yes, we will ship everywhere. We distribute, sorry, we distribute only in the US and then, you know, from distributors to get to all the shops, but we will ship anywhere in the world. So, you know, going over Atlantic Ocean or Pacific Ocean, you're going to have to pay, we say, duties in shipping land on the purchaser. But, you know, put a big enough order in and it's totally worthwhile. Yeah, just mark them as gift, Ted said. So it would be fine. I like it. Ted King, you are a gent. You are to use the phrase, the king of gravel. Oh, man, I appreciate it. Thanks for chatting with us. Yeah, thank you very much. Appreciate the time. Whoa, I could have sat there and listened to Ted King all night. What an interesting dude. The way he's transitioned and made a new genre of professional cycling. It's admirable and I'm enjoying watching this space evolve and yeah, it's gonna be a super interesting space. Who knows? Maybe instead of watching Prairie Ruby in a couple of years with me sitting back on the couch to watch a dirty cancer. Who knows who knows? Guys if you enjoyed the podcast please make sure you subscribe to it and make sure I can get these into your hands much easier, share it on Instagram with a friend, it helps spread the good word and like I said already please please please jump on over to our patreon patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore watch and buy me a coffee or a beer and it just keeps this podcast show rolling. You wouldn't believe the guests I have hooked up over the common podcasts. It's going to be epic, so stay tuned and make sure you don't miss the upcoming shows. Thanks for all the men, look after yourselves and I'll see you on the road soon.
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