Ted and Laura King recently competed in the UCI Gravel World Championships in Belgium and took the time to answer fueling and other questions before and after they represented the USA in the men’s and women’s elite races.
Pre – Race Questions With Ted and Laura King
Q: What are you most excited about going into the 2024 World Gravel Championships? Pro athletes get nervous too, what are you most apprehensive about going into this race?
Ted: This is slightly long winded, but hear me out. What’s really cool about gravel is that you can find it everywhere. Gravel in the contemporary sense is an all encompassing term for rough roads and however frequently you can throw some dirt into the mix. Heck, you can have “gravel” in the concrete jungle of New York City if you look hard enough. So Belgium has done a terrific job putting a very Belgian spin on gravel here with this course in the heart of global cycling. Meaning, we’re on canal paths and bike paths and tunnels ducking under the highway and loads of pavement snaking through neighborhoods, doubletrack trips through the forest, and lots of singletrack connecting farm fields. The quintessentially Belgian piece is that the road is never more than about six-riders wide. We’re more accustomed to wide open American roads where attrition takes its toll in determining the winner, but I’m convinced that start position is half of one’s result here. There’s a pinch point maybe 300 meters into the race where riders will still be on the start line and others will be sprinting two-wide through this narrow path. (Editor’s note: Ted has a video, here, that shows the hectic start right at that pinch point of the race.)
That’s the long way of saying I’m very excited, but also very nervous for such a deep field of racers on such a technically complicated course.
Laura: 100% the depth of the field and my questioning of whether I belong! I am very confident in my technical and pack skills, but one glance at the start list elicits a list of doubts, especially considering how the course is laid out. Starting at the back and facing immediate pinch points will present its challenges. While I do my best to race aggressively, having a family has certainly given me a ceiling to the risks I’m willing to take.
Once I can get past the initial kilometers, my hope is to feel strong and ride to my potential and maybe even surprise myself along the way. I have high expectations of myself so I’d love to leave Belgium feeling like I met or exceeded those expectations.
Q: What will you be bringing for fuel and what is your fueling strategy?
Ted: Short answer – lots of liquids! It’s basically a 113 mile cyclocross race, so my plan is to take on energy the easiest and quickest way possible since controlling your bike over this complicated terrain is paramount. I’ll plan to do about one bottle per hour since it’s not scorching mid-summer heat here in northern Belgium in October. So I’ll start with two bottles of Mapleaid, have an extra serving of UnTapped in each bottle, then carry a flask of Salted Raspberry. I’ll grab another two or three bottles over the course of the race in the feed zones, plus another flask.
I’ll kick the day off with some homemade granola (thank you Laura), a cup or three of coffee, then sip a bottle of Mapleaid on the drive to the start, nosh on an energy waffle with an hour to go, and be ready to rip!
Laura: My plan for the 83 mile course is 4×24 oz bottles with 2-3 servings of Grape Mapleaid per bottle. One bottle will be water towards the end when I start to get extra thirsty and need to feel like I’m quenching my thirst (which is harder with calories). I plan to carry 2x soft flasks of Salted Raspberry. I may not consume all of them, but I’m going to do my best when I can actually reach for something! That’s it, I want to keep it simple since it’ll be a chaotic race. I’m thrilled that the temps will be cool and perfect.
Q: What set up will you be riding?
Ted: Oooh fun question, but I can’t divulge much! We’re on some fun new bikes from Cannondale and new tires from Rene Herse… which is about all we can say about that! We’re on SRAM’s new Red XPLR groupset. I have a 48 up front, Laura has a 44, and those are paired with 10-46 cassettes. It’s a pretty darn slick looking rig and very very race ready. (Editor: Some sleuthing intel dug up this video.)
Laura: Ted is correct. I’m super glad I just made the switch to 1X, the number of shifts that will take place with so many twists, turns and subsequent all out sprints, it is really nice to not need to deal with a front derailleur.
Post- Race Questions with Ted and Laura King
Q: Were you able to stick to your race fueling plan and racing strategy or did you have to modify things on the fly?
Ted: Okay, so independent of this question, one of the first words that comes to mind about this race now looking at it in the rearview mirror is “mayhem”. The pre-race staging was mayhem, the start of the race was mayhem, and the next 113 miles were mayhem. Also, the feedzones were mayhem.
There was no support from USA Cycling, which is rare for a world championships. Conveniently, with women racing Saturday and men racing Sunday, the handful of American riders really teamed up and helped support our country(wo)men on opposing days. That said, it was still catch-as-catch-can to a large degree. Laura successfully handed up a bottle and flask at mile 43, but I unfortunately didn’t see her in the circus that was the feed-zone at mile 85, so I basically did the 113 mile race on three bottles. I’m elated that I had the flask strapped to my bottle for that hand-up, so I had the calories I planned to consume over the race, but with lovely above average, sunny temperatures, I really could have used another bottle or two over the course of the five hours.
I feel like I came apart with a little less than an hour to go, which corresponds well to being dehydrated after four hours of racing. It’s splitting hairs, but I think I could have landed another 30 or 40 spots higher if I hadn’t come unglued. The mayhem is part of the adventure.
Laura: The feed zones were chaotic for riders. Getting to a feed zone (as a crew member) was also challenging with closed roads and so many spectators. I found it hard to find my crew (Ted, that is) and it turns out due to gridlock traffic, he didn’t make it to one of the zones. In total, he handed up one bottle for a total of three for the entire race. It wasn’t ideal, but it also wasn’t a total deal breaker. I felt confident I could mostly hold it together through the last hour with what I had. I finished parched and thirsty, so could it have helped to have that fourth bottle? Probably. Would it have made a difference in my result? Likely not by much.
Q: Did the race play out as you predicted? Why or why not?
Ted: Pretty much, spot on! I describe the day as a 113 mile cyclocross race with the first obstacle just a few seconds into the race. I said earlier 50%, but I think start position is literally 75% of where results end up. That is, the World Tour guys, who are already the strongest physiologically and perfectly tuned for this sort of effort, are lined up at the start, while the rest of us who have few or no UCI points are further and further back. It’s a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy. The strongest get the best start and then they go on to succeed. Go figure.
That being said, I’m surprised how close the rest of the race was! I moved up from 278th to finish 124th out of the 290 starters, which frankly is far better than I expected. I figured we’d hit that first narrowing section, and we would be at a standstill for minutes. There were always riders flying off course in greasy mud or narrowly dodging Belgian road furniture, but forward momentum was always fast paced, so that was a pleasant surprise.
Oh, and Mathieu for the win was predicted by most, myself included, and that happened too.
Laura: Yes and no. As it’s easy to do, everything I anticipated in my head played out more dramatically (as in, many worst case scenarios) than actually happened. I imagined crashes everywhere and thankfully only saw a few. I imagined blowing up and instead, I felt as though my legs kept delivering on the hard efforts I was asking from them. I think going in with low expectations helped because every time I began to exceed my expectations, I got more and more motivated and excited. One of my goals was also to soak in the experience. I tried to take in every cheer, every crowd, every cool part of each village and forest and think “this is a really unique moment”. When I had the chance to be riding with some of the women I am fans of in the sport, that feeling only grew stronger.
Q: What lesson will you take away from this race? How will you use that moving forward?
Ted: It’s unlikely that I’ll chase UCI points, but even a few would be a wise move if I ever want to jump into another World Championship. I figured the race would have a bit more bland opening miles where riders can move around and fight for position into the technical stuff. Instead there was immediately technical stuff so that “fight” all came in the previous month’s pursuit of points. Lesson learned.
I really enjoy how racers at this highest level continue to push all the way to the line, even when a notable result on paper is no longer possible. There are plenty of races where I’ll check out with 10% of the race left to go, because I’ve done my part and I’m ready to soft pedal to the finish. Duking it out all the way to the line is a much better approach.
I’m confident Laura and I earned first place in the hotly contested “elite racing couple with kids at home” category. A sincere feeling of appreciation is something we felt all through the long weekend.
Laura: I rely a lot on my faith to deal with fears surrounding racing. I try to let a lot of it go, knowing so much is out of my control. It’s a continual practice, but training your mindset is so important and I’m proud that I continue to build and exercise that muscle.
Gratitude and perspective are two key takeaways as well. To be a working mom of two little kids and balancing many normal life responsibilities, I/We couldn’t do this without a ton of support from sponsors, from work, from family. To do this alongside Ted is also very special. I had opportunities to pursue cycling at a greater level in my younger years and I knew the risky, lonely and nomadic lifestyle wasn’t for me. I never dreamed I would get to have fun alongside my partner and still pursue the sport in a serious way.
Bonus Round
Q: What was the wildest thing you saw or experienced out there?
Ted: The Flemish spectators are quite the spectacle. I couldn’t tell you how many fans were lining the course, but it’s safe to say the number is closer to 150,000 than 15,000! That said, the Belgian frites that Laura handed me at the finish line were exactly what I wanted at that moment.
Laura: I loved the aspect of all discipline specialists racing alongside gravelleurs. Gravel is come one, come all, so that was a highlight to be amongst road and CX and MTB legends! I knew Belgium loves cycling but I wasn’t prepared for the crowds and the fans! Hearing my name, hearing U-S-A, kids cheering “hup, hup, hup!”—it was electrifying and exciting.
Q: Pancakes, french toast or waffles? What are you going to order?
Ted: I make the other two, but for whatever reason I never make french toast at home, so that’s my order here. Light, fluffy bread like challah and an overnight soak, drenched in hot maple syrup… yes please!
Laura: I’m going to say crepes, because they’re actually my favorite breakfast treat. So, a skinny pancake?