Three weeks ago, Ted King crashed and broke his collarbone while riding in California, forcing the gravel racer and former World Tour rider to curtail his schedule, but the American is back and heading to unbound gravel with renewed confidence. The American is back and heading to the unbounded gravel with renewed confidence.

King was on the fence about whether to compete in last weekend's epic 155-mile gravel locos in Hico, Texas, but the 38-year-old made the trip from Vermont and finished sixth, behind winner Lawrence ten Dam, in grueling, rain-soaked conditions.

"Overall, it went really well. It's been about three and a half weeks since I broke my collarbone. If I was returning to the World Tour peloton, I would have waited many more weeks before returning to competition. [About two hours into the race, Laurence said to me, "I'm not sure I'd have made it back if I hadn't broken my collarbone. We started with a couple hundred riders, and after a couple of hills and attacks we were down to about 20. Then it was down to 10. By the time my day was practically over, we were down to seven, and that was at mile 125."

King, who won the Unbound Gravel, then called Dirty Kanza, in 2018, was pleased with his performance in Texas, especially given the difficulties of the past few weeks when surgery forced him to cut back on training and outdoor riding.

"I was really OK with that run, considering what I've been through the last few weeks. It was a good confidence boost coming back from a broken collarbone." [It's my last race before unbound, so from here I'll go back to Vermont and rest a little bit; we had about five hours of dry racing, but I was on high alert because of the collarbone."

King is not the only one competing in the June 5 Unbound; his wife, Laura, will also line up at the start line in Kansas.

"It's very exciting to have my wife Laura in the race. She's been a part of my support crew at Unbound for the last few years and although she hasn't raced professionally, I'm really looking forward to seeing how she does.

Cycling News will have complete coverage of Unbound, including news, results, reports, photos, and technical information.