A few months into King’s first semester, Robbie—by then an avid road racer at Colorado College—came to town for the 2002 National Collegiate Road Championships, hosted by the University of Vermont. The championship course ended at Middlebury Gap, so King hopped on his mountain bike in the morning and rode from the College up Route 125 to the finish. A few hours later, he watched his brother win a national title.

“That was an eye-opener for him,” says Robbie. “He got a chance to see what the sport was like at the collegiate level and that I was having a ball.” Inspired, the younger King dedicated himself to the bike that summer, training with his brother’s coach and returning to school in the fall ready to race.

The summer work paid off—King persevered through four fall weekends of mountain bike racing (in the world of collegiate cycling, fall is for mountain biking, and spring for road races) and ultimately was invited to the national championships in Angel Fire, New Mexico.

In late October, he traveled to Colorado Springs, where Robbie was finishing his senior year, borrowed his brother’s car, and drove 225 miles south to the race.

He finished sixth.

“It was like a light switch went off,” says his mom, Margie. “Once he decided to ride bikes, he was determined to get to the top quickly.”

Back at school, he set up a rigorous winter training program. He bought a stationary trainer and, unable to find a spot for it in the basement of his dorm, rode for hours every day in Nelson Gym.

As the snow melted and mud season began in spring of 2003, King ramped up his road racing training and once again qualified for the national championships. This time, teaming up with his brother in a breakaway, he finished third overall.

“He and I were duking it out to the finish line,” says

Robbie, who ended up winning his second collegiate title that day. “I don’t know if he let me have the win or if he was tired, but he had definitely developed as a rider.”

The next year, King became more serious about making cycling a top priority. He took a leave of absence from Middlebury, joining his brother in Arizona, where the older King was training for a spot on the professional circuit.

Living out of a small apartment complex, King took classes at the University of Arizona and trained with his brother in the desert sun. The two rose quickly, riding together for the amateur Louis Garneau team in 2004. By the spring of 2005, King was back at Middlebury, and after a great series of races in California, he had started to distinguish himself on the American cycling scene. He was one of a dozen selected for the U.S. U-23 national team and throughout the summer he raced in the U.S. and Europe against top competition.

“Cycling is a lot like any other job; you have a race résumé,” he says. “Racing for the U.S. National Team, that looks really good.” The U.S. pro team Priority Health agreed, signing the King brothers as part of a package deal to the fledgling squad.

“I remember walking out into the common room of my suite at school,” says King, “and the first thing one of my friends said is, ‘Teddy, you have a job.’”

Like anyone fresh out of college, King had a learning curve in the real world. The first two years he spent with the team (which changed its sponsor to Bissell in ’07) King made small progress, amassing some top-10 finishes here and there. But in 2008, he had a breakout year, finishing the season ranked second among all pro riders in the U.S.

“That year, Ted was one of the major players,” says Glen Mitchell, a former teammate and sport director, or team manager, at Bissell. “People were asking, ‘What’s Ted going to do in the race today?’”

The racing world took notice.

Every August, the free-agent market in professional cycling opens for business. Rumors fly as new teams court riders who have made big moves during the previous season, even if they’re still under contract, while those who have failed to achieve feel the pressure mounting.

Last year, King was pursued by Cervélo, a Canadian bike manufacturer that was assembling its first-ever men’s pro team. (Tom Fowler ’86, coincidentally the company’s director of sales and service, says that he didn’t even know King was a Middlebury graduate until the two went on a ride in California earlier this year.) The team management, based in Switzerland, flew him to Lucerne for a two-hour meeting and then promptly returned him home. “I knew when they were flying me over there that this was no chump team,” says King. “I was thinking, ‘I really hope this comes to fruition.’”

It did. In late August they offered him a contract. He accepted and immediately started to make arrangements for his move abroad.

“The aspiration is always there—you want to go to Europe,” he says. “But every year maybe one or two of the 200 pros racing in North America can make that jump. So I was beyond elated.”

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