Fully recovered from injury, Liquigas-Cannondale man ready to race
Ted King (Liquigas-Cannondale) will return to racing at the Tour of Utah, over two months after breaking his collarbone at the Philadelphia International Cycling Championship in June. A week after finishing third at the national championships, the New England native was on good form but failed to see an unmarked storm grate in the road during the race and went down hard.
“Breaking a collarbone is never ideal – that much is nearly guaranteed. But trying to remain optimistic at the time, there’s room to draw on some positives from the ordeal.” he told VeloNation from Aspen, Colorado, where he is busy doing his final preparation for the remainder of the season.
“I was coming off a good performance at the Tour of California and a podium finish at USPro in Greenville, so a mid-season rest can be enormously beneficial to prevent any sort of burnout come late July, August, and September.”
Remaining optimistic, King had a very thorough approach to his rehabilitation program after surgery, in order to return to full fitness as soon as possible.
“Taking it objectively, I did what is often the basic return-from-collarbone-fracture-and-surgery standard; first I spent time in the gym on a recumbent trainer in order to keep load off my shoulder. From there I graduated to riding the normal trainer for another five days before getting outside.
“That’s the most cathartic move – from pounding my head against the wall on the trainer just trying to make it to 60 minutes to riding for [an] hour again outside – oh man, that’s just so liberating and refreshing.”
A month after the accident, King stayed in America, returning to training as per usual. He spent some time in the Green Mountains of Vermont and the White Mountains of New Hampshire to be in the best possible shape for what lies next on his race program, Utah and USA Pro Cycling Challenge in Colorado.
“Returning to racing after a two months hiatus is a bit of a mind game,” he said, explaining what he had experienced. “You can train your tail off, but there’s no mimicking racing itself, so you just can’t psych yourself out knowing that you lack that specific race fitness.
“I’ve been training hard especially these past three weeks at altitude, climbing lots, threshold work, and spending time behind the scooter. I imagine Utah will blow some of the crud out of the gaskets, so to speak, and I’ll be firing on all cylinders by Colorado. One day at a time.”
King moved to the Italian Liquigas-Cannondale team this year after spending two years on the Cervélo Test Team. He said the team has been has been very understanding and strong in their support through this time. He will now look to repay them during the remainder of the season, as well as next year.
“I’m on two years with Liquigas-Cannondale so with some good results here in 2011 mixed with injury, I’m looking forward to closing out 2011 on a really high note. Then smashing 2012 to pieces.”