In the first profile of our new series that focuses on the many people involved with inGamba, we sat down with former professional Ted King. From our mechanics, soigneurs, guides and guests, inGamba is many things to many people. And King has seen the brand grow from both the inside and the outside, as a guest, guide and WorldTour pro.
It is not every day that you get to ride with Ted King, the former American professional and gravel race pioneer. But at inGamba, King is a familiar face.
“You know, I’m not sure how many trips I have done now,” King says as we caught up with him in the Northern Portuguese village of Marialva, where he is on a private trip with family and friends. “Probably two per year for the past nine years. But even that seems low… I have done everything from hosting my own Ted King trip to being a quasi-guide to being a guest like I am on this trip. I’ve done every type of ride, from the more hardcore Donkey Week to more relaxed low-mileage trips. This week, I am just here as a guest and, well, pinch me! It’s amazing to be on this side of the whole inGamba experience!”
To say that King’s experience with inGamba goes back several years is, in fact, an understatement. King was with inGamba before inGamba was, well, inGamba. He was with our founder João Correia when his unique cycling tour concept came into fruition, back when they were both training hard as pro racers.
“I think of those early years when João and I were teammates,” King recalls fondly. “I was in Girona, this young American living the Girona life, which back in 2010 had attracted so many cyclists. I remember that João had absolutely no interest in being there. He had a different perspective and as a result he ended up in Lecchi in Chianti, this very small town in Tuscany. He had invited me to come train with him a couple of times, but it wasn’t until 2010 that I made my way over. I remember that I was just shocked with this lifestyle he had created there. The town didn’t have the luxuries of Girona: It didn’t have an airport nearby. It didn’t have the infrastructure you need as a pro, which is basically to be able to get to a grocery store, get to a bike shop and get to an airport, but João had if figured out. We would wake up and he would say, ‘Okay, let’s go get coffee.’ We would roll just 100 meters down the road and he would sit at a cafe and start reading Gazetta dello Sport. I would be like, ‘Come on man, we have to train!’ But he had a different pace and I understood that he was there for the lifestyle as well.”
According to King, it was here, in this quiet corner of Tuscany where the seeds of inGamba were planted, and Correia confirms that King was with him when he came up with the idea for his first trip.
“Ted and I go back to 2008 when we were racing together at Bissel and then we were teammates again in 2010 at Cervélo Test Team,” Correia recalls. “We’ve always been very good friends and Ted has always been a curious person. When I first had this whole idea of inGamba, we were having lunch at Paolo’s in Lecchi. I was very tired and burned out as a cyclist. This must have been in July 2010, and I just decided that I wanted to do a week of riding on my favorite roads without looking at my power meter, and I wanted to eat at my favorite places without weighing our food. So I just created this weeklong trip and sent out a tweet. That’s how inGamba started and Ted was there when that happened.”
Correia’s pro cycling career was unique in that he turned professional late, after working in the magazine publishing business for several years. As a result, when he joined the WorldTour, he did so with a sense of culture and history that few of his 20-year-old teammates possessed. King, while nearly 10 years younger, was one of the exceptions. He not only came to understand Correia’s perspective, but he embraced it, and as his own career evolved, it was often King that would search out the local specialties for his younger teammates.
“I have these incredible memories of kicking around Lecchi,” King recalls. “I remember João had this Fiat Cinquecento, which was ancient, but he loved fixing it up and driving that around. With João, I began to see this other perspective that brought together cycling and lifestyle. João understood this and I think he understood already that there were a lot of people that want the lifestyle of a professional cyclist, but they want it with a high level of hospitality. And that is exactly what inGamba is.”
While King witnessed the nascent stages of inGamba firsthand, he also saw it grow quickly into the pro luxury travel experience that it is today.
“It’s interesting because I have experienced a handful of other cycling travel companies, but there is something wildly unique at inGamba,” King says. “The name inGamba means ‘in the know.’ It takes someone like João, who was a professional cyclist to put it together. It takes the staff that inGamba has, that are subbing in and out of WorldTour races as mechanics and soigneurs. As a result, there is just something uniquely special about these trips.”
While on occasion, King has served as an inGamba guide, his recent trip in to Portugal was simply as a guest, where he enjoyed the full inGamba experience. “You know, in those first years after I was a pro I didn’t always take the massage because, well, I had had so many as a pro. But I am getting them now and it is just a luxury.”
And while King has done some of the most extreme inGamba trips over the years, he also enjoys the more balanced trips like this recent one in northern Portugal with rides between two and five hours—coffee-stops included, of course.
“This is a terrific example of a reasonable inGamba week. It keeps you on your toes. There is plenty to do,” King says of ride routes. Throughout the week, King could often be seen simply riding along and chatting with his many friends on the trip. But he came with his wife Laura—who was preparing for the the gravel world championships just one week later—and so the two could often be seen pushing the pace on the many KOM’s along this six-day loop.
King, of course, came to inGamba firstly as a cyclist, but one of the things he appreciates most on the trips is the sense of discovery.
“It’s actually rather odd because, while I had a whole career racing my bike all over Europe, it is with inGamba where I have experienced places for the first time,” he says. “I raced the Tour of Sardinia twice, but it was when I did the inGamba trip to Sardinia that I really experienced the place. Or the Dolomites. I always loved doing training camps there. I love the Dolomites and just think that they are the coolest place in the world, with the topography and those pillars of mountains. But doing it with inGamba allowed me to experience the whole lifestyle there.”
King still remembers his career as a professional fondly, and he cherishes his many memories racing the world’s great races. But certain aspects of the pro life he cherished less.
“You know one thing I don’t miss about being a pro is the bad food at bad hotels,” he says with a healthy dose of sarcasm. “I mean there is nothing worse than Paris-Roubaix week. We are were always in these little hotels where you had to migrate the chair out of the room just to open your suitcase. And then you would sit down to dinner with over-cooked pasta and under-cooked chicken. No, I don’t miss those experiences. Instead, here at inGamba we leave every meal over-fed. And you know what, that is quite alright!”
