Ted King

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Well folks, it's snowing outside.Presumably that much you already know. Based on my estimated reading demographic, you probably check websites with the words cyclo/nation/velo/news/podium/insight/cafe or simply weather.com before you swing by iamtedking.com. Therefore you already know that there's some of that white, frozen, precip is dumping. Allow me to echo those sites, yuup.Here's a quick photo montage of the day.This is my hotel for the previous week, Montblue. I have walked across the street for a cup of coffee and to test the weather conditions first hand. First hand know-how tells me, yes, it is in fact snowing.From there, we ate breakfast anticipating a 10:30am start, right on schedule. Soon thereafter though, collective good-judgement prevailed and we postponed the start. From there, everyone hopped onto theTwitter to glean some good news and simply hoped for the best.From there, here's a quick timeline: sun broke through the clouds, roads seemed to dry up, snow then fell, sun, snow, blizzard, sun, and then snow. And then sun. So it was around about noon that someone announced a 1:15pm start. From there we kitted up, I put on my big B-A game face, rolled outside (where it was sunny), signed in, did some on-camera interviews, aaaand then it started dumping again.I've said it before and I'll say it again. We are family. We are brothers, sons, and fathers. We unequivocally we want to race. We also are happy that good sense and safety prevailed over insanity.I have spent plenty of absurdly dangerous days slipping and sliding around on my bike. I remember one particular Parents' Weekend in February in Middlebury. Mom called up a few minutes out of town while a blizzard raged on to ask where I was. I had to take off about four pairs of mittens and dig through some pockets and to answer the phone in a fury. Yes, I was mid-ride. Yes, a proper, meteorologically diagnosed BLIZZARD. Perfect time for a ride. That all said, doing that stupidly on my own is one thing - risking it all with numbers pinned on your back. No thanks.Right before the start. Requisite B+W for extra drama.Anyway, here are some other money shots after the stage was capped. First is UHC boys riding up a hill. In snow. And rain.And then we arrive at our hotel tonight. Host of the 1960 winter Olympic games.And yup, as I said at the start, it's snowing.Upon arriving at the hotel, we set up shop in the garage and still needed to spin the ol' yams. Dumping outside and nice and dry inside - just dripping a lot of sweat instead. Hellllo Cannondale! Followed by a behind the scenes of me being the natural cameraman that I am. And another of the money maker. My smile indicates that I am loving my SuperSix EVO. In other news, I'm watching ESPN GameDay with the Sox-Yankees game about to start. Yankees fans are as loud and rude as as they are sucky. Go Sox!