The Krempels King of the Road Challenge is a fundraising event for the Krempels Center, a Portsmouth NH based nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of people living with brain injury from trauma, tumor or stroke.
Cyclists know that fall in New England offers some of the best riding conditions of the year and we’ve pulled together an event that not only celebrates the season but includes scenic routes, friendly course support and a lively finish area celebration. Fun throughout the day is assured and, while you’re at it, you’ll be supporting the Krempels Center!
What the ride is – The Krempels King of the Road Challenge is a fundraising event: participation comes with a commitment to raise minimum amounts to help support the Krempels Center. Please see the Fundraising Section for more details.
What the ride is not – This event is not a race, it is designed to be an enjoyable day of cycling and camaraderie.
This event has a special connection to the King family, through the local cycle-racing legends Robbie and Teddy King, who are actively involved with supporting the event.
Three routes, of varying lengths, have been designed to accommodate a wide range of cycling abilities, fundraising minimums have been set at easily attainable levels and the focus has been put on family fun.
We put together an opportunity to support the Krempels Center, the King connection and a glorious riding experience. What we got is the inaugural Krempels King of the Road Challenge. Please join us!
Margie, Ted, Teddy and Robbie King at the 2013 Krempels
King of the Road Challenge
The King Connection
Well-known bicycle racers Robbie & Teddy King (from Brentwood, NH) were early and strong supporters of the Krempels King of the Road Challenge and continue in being instrumental to its success. Their father, Ted, a respected surgeon and stroke survivor, is a very active member of the Krempels Center community. There is a strong King family connection to the Center.
Robbie has cut back on his professional racing but still rides regularly and will participate in the Challenge. Father Ted and Mom Margie are both huge fans of the Challenge and its support of Krempels Center; they both plan to to ride the 10 Mile route, something they have done every year of the ride. Teddy continues to enjoy professional racing success and currently rides for the Cannondale Pro Cycling team.
Teddy will be racing all over Europe (and domestically) in the 2014 season. Teddy will keep us informed as the season progresses: keep an eye on the News section on our web site and also our Facebook page. For more on Teddy’s adventures see his blog, live on his Twitter feed or at the team’s Facebook page.
Teddy King
A 2001 graduate of Exeter High School, Teddy King caught the cycling bug after watching brother Robbie win the 2003 collegiate national championships. Earning All-American status while racing for Middlebury College, Teddy rose through New England’s elite amateur ranks and onto the American U-23 national team, based in cycling crazed Belgium.
That was followed by three years of domestic professional racing, the first two of which with Robbie as a teammate. With a growing list of top results, Teddy made the leap to the European peloton in 2009 as a member of the Cervelo TestTeam.
2014 marks his third year with the Europe-based powerhouse team Cannondale Pro Cycling. Teddy has competed in the world’s biggest races including the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, Paris-Nice, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, and the World Championships. As the consummate domestique, Teddy has dutifully served teammates who have won world championships as well as all three grand tours.
Yeeaa bikes!
Robbie King
Growing up in an active family in Brentwood, NH, Robbie participated in all kinds of sports and recreation. A lifetime of athletic mediocrity came to a speedy end the moment he joined the Holderness high school’s cycling team.
Robbie’s ensuing undefeated rookie season crystallized his love of the sport. At Colorado College he won national collegiate championship titles in both junior and senior years.
His dad’s major stroke at the tail end of his senior year drove home the point that you have one chance to chase your dreams. Those dreams led him from coast to coast for most of the following decade racing on several teams as an elite amateur, then as a professional with the Priority Health then Rite Aid teams. Four of those years were spent with brother, teammate, confidant and friend, Ted. Now engaged in pre-Med studies Robbie still races occasionally as a Category 1 rider.
Ted King
Ted King, an orthopaedic and hand surgeon, practiced with Access Sports Medicine and Orthopaedics in Exeter, NH, for 25 years until experiencing a right hemisphere stroke at home. He was treated with intravenous TPA (clot buster) at Exeter Hospital within the critical three hours of onset. Now an active member of the Krempels Center in Portsmouth, Ted is married to Margie and is the father of Robbie and Teddy.
He is a visiting lecturer at UNH School of Health Sciences in the Occupational Therapy Department.
Physically active, Ted walks in his neighborhood daily and rides an adaptive recumbent bicycle in good weather. His pre-stroke passion for competitive sailboat racing is undiminished; he often participates in disabled sailing regattas around the US. Ted is writing a memoir of his life since the stroke titled “The Road to Hana: My Journey of Recovery.
http://kingchallenge.org
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