Ted King

After injury forced an early withdrawal from his debut Tour last July, the likeable American heads into 2014 as a man with unfinished business...

Is it fair to call your departure from last year’s Tour the lowest point of your career?

I don’t know, it’s hard to qualify the low end of your career. It sucked. It was tough but you have to rebound somehow. The outpouring of support was incredible, entirely unexpected and became a crutch to help pick me up during a terrible time. All the same, I race a bike for a living. If that’s the worst part of my cycling career… Yes it was insulting, terrible, annoying but you pick up a newspaper the next day and you read headlines about countries at civil war... What happened last July is fuel to get back into that Tour team. It’d be redemption. But in the grand scheme of things, we’re riding bikes and having a lot of fun with it.

Did you keep following the Tour from afar?

I checked it out for a while. Part of what made it so difficult was my family coming over to Europe and they don’t travel well. So being with them was a really good escape. I left it up to them what we did. I’d lived in Girona for four years and they’d never been there so wanted to see what my Spanish lifestyle was all about. It was a blast to be able to show them around and to check out from cycling for a while. But by the end of the race, I’d checked back in.

You said last September that you hadn’t found a contract for 2014. When did you get assurances?

I hadn’t signed a contract but I knew there would be something at the end of the road. Cannondale has been a great supporter for four

“WHAT HAPPENED LAST JULY IS FUEL TO GET BACK INTO THAT TOUR TEAM THIS SEASON. IT’D BE

REDEMPTION”

years. It’s exciting to be a New Englander with a New England brand on a very global level. Cannondale was my first road bike, my first mountain bike and my first cyclo cross bike, so it’s a brand that I’m proud of and happy to be assimilated with. So you’re right, I did not have a contract in September but there was a great deal of confidence that there would be an offer on the table in a really tough year, with a lot of guys struggling.

Your work for Peter Sagan marks you out as one of the top domestiques in the peloton. What would your job entail on a stage of, say, the Tour that he’s targeting?

That’s what’s great about working for a guy like Peter – he could be targeting virtually any stage, which brings out a variety of skills. I’m not a pure lead- out guy or a pure climbing guy but I can do it all, which is what Peter can do but on an exceptional level. So be it a flat stage, an intermediary stage or a hilly stage, that job can vary from day to day. But that’s what keeps it fresh. It’s the unseen work. So whether it’s fetching bottles, shuttling someone out of the wind or mixing it up in the finale, that’s my work.

Is it ever frustrating that it is unseen work?

Obviously it’s the winner who gets that acclaim but I don’t begrudge that fact. I’m still travelling the world racing my bike. It’s pretty glamorous even on the least glamorous level.

What gives you satisfaction in that role?

I love racing my bike. Peter being there in the finale gives the opportunity to throw caution to the wind, to mix things up and be in the breakaway. Okay, I’m never going to win a straight out sprint or climbing stage but to be hungry for a win is my fuel.

How does Sagan motivate his troops?

He brings a tremendous amount of fun. He’s just such a young, fun captain. He’s fun to hang out with during training and after a win it’s always a great time lifting a beer in celebration. Just the energy he brings is truly inspiring.

Charly Wegelius gives a good account in his autobiography on accepting early in his career that he wasn’t going to be the guy who wins bike races at the top level…

90 per cent of the peloton are in the same position. Everything is relative. I’m racing at WorldTour level and there are worse things than never winning a race. Look at other sports... In American football, the guy who gets the glory is the quarterback or running back but there are another 45 members of a team who aren’t scoring a touchdown but are still winning a Super Bowl. You’re part of a team. I think it’s something that’s often lost in this scenario.