Todd Wells

Cyclingdirt.com

If you are looking for coverage from the Belgie WCs, Cyclingdirt.com has coverage. 

Mexico

We made it down to San Pancho from San Carlos with out any problems, just under 13 hours. When you're traveling on the highways down here you see some pretty creative people. It's amazing how much crap you can stack on and tie up to your vehicle. Like this: 

 

We must have passed at least two hundred vehicles with this much or more stuff strapped to their ride. I have a bunch of pictures but the internet connection is a little suspect so I'm not going to waste all day trying to upload them. 

It is pretty dead down here in Mexico this year. San Pancho is always a pretty chill town but with the swine flu this summer, the media attention on the drug wars and the economy in the toilet, it's almost a ghost town here. It's nice for us but not for the people that make their living in these few months. We went over to Sayulita last night though for fish tacos and that place is still crazy. The town is so packed and noisy, but it makes coming back to San Pancho, 4 KMs away even better. 

Gilby and I played golf at "The Field of Dreams" yesterday. It's a little 9 hole course up in the jungle, not fancy at all. They just redid the last three holes now and it requires a few more clubs. They even have an elevated island green. 

I was laid out for a day, a few days back with the stomach bug. It seems better now but when I'm down here it's always nice to be close to a bathroom since you never know when you're going to get the urge. The food has been amazing as usual and this morning I had the best chocolate pancakes I've ever had. I also threw back a pretty damn good cappuccino.  

I just watched footage of the last WC in Belgium this morning too, it looked like a super fun course. I also watched some footage from US CX nats. There is some great coverage of the race up on the internet. 

Well Meg is down at the beach so I better head down there. The Gilbys leave tomorrow and my parents come in. 

I wonder what Maddy is doing right now.....

San Carlos

So I skipped a head a lot since my last blog. Like most things, it's on the next one. Nationals was anticlimactic for me. I had great form but found a way to not make it happen. The other guys out there didn't help my cause as everyone was riding really fast. It just wasn't my day and Timothy rode a great race. He was flying and J-Pows too until he TKOed himself. Meg and I made it through the post race party no worse for the wear. Well, Meg and Rude had drinking contests with themselves but I managed to keep things mellow. They both won their contests and paid the price the next day. 

I only had a day to BooHoo about the race before we loaded up the car and pointed it south. We arrived back in Durango on Monday night and left Tuesday morning for Mexico. I was hoping to make it to San Carlos the first day but we only got to Tucson. Today we made it to San Carlos but after sneaking Winston into a "No Pets Casita" last night we didn't get much sleep. The walls were paper thin and he was antsy. 

We made it for sunset to the "Soggy Peso" after setting up our tent at the http://www.totonakarv.com This place rocks. I'm sitting on the internet, charging my computer in a chair in my tent after taking a warm shower. For $12 a day I should move down here full time. We even got 2 free margaritas with our check in. I might be singing a different tune after sleeping on a 1/2 inch sleeping pad on a gravely camp site. At least I'm not worried about Winston barking and it is 70 degrees, about  70 degrees warmer then this time last week. 

Tomorrow we're hoping to make it San Pancho but worst case we have another spot picked out in Mazatlan and San Blas. You never know what you're going to get while driving down here and there are a few safe spots to stop along the way. There were some HUGE waits going back towards the US with trucks backed up for miles. The military guys all look to be about 15 with huge machine guns, desert camo and bright orange vests so they don't get mowed down while directing traffic on the roads. 

It's 8:45 and Meg, Winston and I are all ready for bed. 

I wonder what Maddy(our cat) is doing right now...

Bend Day 3

I'm settling in nicely here in Bend, already getting bored. Rude and I got to bust out almost 1 entire fast lap today. That is a huge accomplishment since there are millions of people trying to train on the course at once. I'm hoping there will be half as many people trying to ride the course tomorrow since a lot of categories have finished already. 

I think the course probably melted a bit today since it was finally above freezing. It was suppose to snow but nothing so far. They say maybe a few inches before Sunday afternoon. When we rode around noon today it was still snow covered, no mud and black ice corners. The roads were melting though and I was covered in road spray when I got home. 

No webisode today but check out the latest from Colt. 

Went to dinner at Baja Fresh today. It was good but we had to drive there. I didn't even need winter gloves tonight though to go outside. Whole Foods was right there so we stopped by and got some over priced groceries and bubbly water. 

I'm looking forward to watching the U-23 race tomorrow. It should be a good one, the guys I'm watching for are Summerhill and Zach McDonald. I'm sure there are some other fast guys too but those are the ones that stick out. 

I have been working hard on that lollipop from last night. I almost have all the color worked off of it. We got some mini canollies and tarts for desert from the WF. I need to put on some pounds to stay warm out there on Sunday. 

The Brake Though Media guys are showing up again tomorrow to get more video footage. Hopefully we can get some good footage. Meg and I are watching Rush Hour 3, Myron is watching Blades of Glory. 

I wonder what Winston and Snoodle are doing right now.....

Bend Day 2

Another webisdoe on i-am-specialized.com:

Rude and I got out on the course today, it's a blast. The whole thing is covered in snow, except where it's just ice. The corners have ice ruts but not banked in the correct way a berm would be. They are banked on the inside of the turning radius so as you lean in, it shoots your tires out from under you. 

There are quite a few ups and downs on the course and it's very short. I think the B-men were doing 6:30 min laps so we'll be in the 5 minute and something range. It will be great for spectating, I just hope they use the 80% rule and pull riders when they are in danger of being lapped, not afterwards. 

Here is a video of me speaking with Colt of cyclingdirt.com about the course this afternoon. 
 

Cycling Videos on CyclingDirt

This site if blowing up with video footage these days, it's so 2009. Now all I need is a new header and it will really be pro. 

Congrats to the Dart for his Mountain Bike Action cover this month. That's a cocky picture with the matching shorts, shoes and helmet for the World Cup U-23 leaders jersey. I would expect nothing less. 

There seems to be a ton of media coverage this year for CX nationals. Last night they had a thing at Bart Bowen's training center where they compared Treboohoo and Craig's physiology on the bike. This town is so cool and is really behind the event. It's great to see them promoting their local pros as well. Everyone here is super friendly also, I don't think I've ever been to a town with so many nice people. Cars will stop at an intersection to let bikes cross even when they don't have a stop sign or traffic light. Crazy. 

So like I was saying, there is so much media about the race I'll talk about something else, here are some photos I've taken the past few days. 

Bend has great candy shops, I'm going to need to go back to the dentist when i get home. 

 

This was the view from the plane flying into Portland last week. Now that's a mountain. 

 

Myron was possessed on the drive to Bend. 
 
 

Downtown Bend is very Christmasy right now. City sidewalks......

 

We're watching Slum Dog Millionaire right now and the Mentalist is up next. Meg just did the laundry with no laundry detergent because the front desk didn't have any. I don't think the clothes will be clean with just water alone but what do I know. 

I wonder what Winston and Snoodle are doing right now.....

Bend

Yup, it's every bit as cold as you've heard it is here. Maybe even colder. We drove down from Portland today in our jalepy mini van. Before we left we had to fill the front tire with fix a flat and buy an air freshener because the car smelled so badly like smoke. Bend seems like a great town, though we haven't seen much of it yet. 

Here is another new webisode up from i-am-specialized.com 
 

I can't believe the domestic MTB schedule is influx yet again. How does this happen. We have 32 UCI sanctioned cyclocross races from September 19- December 6. That's only 10 weeks, with multiple races every weekend all over the country and we can't get a hand full of mountain bike races in the US with UCI accreditation?  Puerto Rico has 2 UCI events in March alone. It's a real bummer for US mountain bike racing. 

CXMagazine.com has a video lap of the National course up right now. I wish we could race tomorrow with the course as it was today, snowy and icy. Maybe it will get even worse by Sunday, I hope so.

Meg and I leave for Mexico on Tuesday, it was 84 degrees at the house today. That's an 84 degree difference in temperature from what it was when we walked home from dinner tonight. 

I wonder if my Marriot points are ever going to get credited to my account.....  

Residence Inn

So we have decided to stay another day in Portland before heading to Bend since there is 8 inches on snow on the ground at our hotel and the high yesterday was 15 degrees. Portland is dry and sunny, though it's only in the mid 20s. Today we're gonna try to ride around Forest Park per Sager's recommendation of low wind there. 

We also found out that hotel has a awesome happy hour during the week so we have to take advantage of that. Last night we hit up some Sushi place downtown, went to Powell's Books which is a huge independent bookstore, Vodoo doughnuts and to some karaoke place to listen to Salam sing. It was so cold last night when we were walking around downtown I had my scarf wrapped around my face like some bank robber. It was a lot of fun though. 

There are three more videos up on i-am-specialized.com. Here they are. 

Meg likes this hotel so much she's talking about moving to one in Tucson this winter. Rude and I have been procrastinating this ride all morning, I think it's time to suit up. 

Tonight we're planning on maybe hitting a movie and Baja Fresh. Umm. Big thanks to Doug for taking of Winston and shoveling our driveway/sidewalk. 

I wonder how many times we're going to get lost on this ride today....

USGP Portland

Phew, it's nice to get a "W" under my belt at an event that most of the top guys are at before Nationals. I say most because Page wasn't here today, he's doing the WC in Europe this weekend and will be the guy to beat I think at Nationals. Anytime you're racing against a World's silver medalist they gotta be the favorite. 

The course was fast and slick, the conditions I enjoy the most. We were a group of four for the first part of the race. I think Kabush might have rolled his tire and dropped out of our group pretty early, then Treboohoo clipped my front tire with his foot jumping back on his bike at the top of the run up and proceeded to miss his bike and land on his chest. He was up quick but lost motivation so with 2 or 3 laps to go it was just Powers and I. I got a gap on J-Pows on the 2nd to last lap and gave it everything but he caught me with 1 to go. I was able to get in front of him through the technical section. get a few bikes lengths and hold on till the finish. Mission accomplished. 

My weekend is a success and tomorrow I don't feel any pressure to do well. The next race I'm thinking about is Nat's. 

Rude had a better race today, think he ended up 13th. Not great and he can do better but good for how he has been riding. 

We all went to dinner at Justa Pasta tonight. Rude and I found it after Salam's panel discussion last year. All organic homemade pasta, cool atmosphere and not to pricey. 

Not much else going on today, filmed some more with the Brake Through Media crew. Looking forward to seeing some of the footage. I don't think the guy working out in the gym today while we were filming on the trainer was too pumped on us but what can you do. We decided to stay here in Portland on Monday instead of heading down to Bend, we'll wait and go on Tuesday. It's suppose to be 15 degrees for a high in Bend on Monday and 30 here so we might as well train in the balmy Portland weather. Plus then Meg and Myron can go to the mall. 

I wonder who Winston is playing with right now, Ed, Fea, Buddy, Bella, Pokey, Gus or Fish....... 

Hawkeye

OK, so this picture is of a Hawkeye, not a Buckeye. My bad. 

We made it to Portland today with no problems. Had a breakfa Wolfgang st pizza at pucks but no Starbucks. I've been laying off the caffeine for the past few days in hopes of getting a big boost from it at Nat's next week.

The weather in Portland is cold and dry. The course doesn't have any mud on it as of right now. The turns are slick and there are a few soft spots out there but for the most part you can ride an entire lap with only getting mud on your tires and no where else. It's the fastest course I have ever ridden in Portland. 

Went to the number ceremony tonight, made it up to number 8. It will be nice to start on the front row but it's a long start straight, I'll probably be trying to sit on someone's wheel anyway. Still it beats the 4th row where I had to start at the last GP. 

Got to catch up with everyone tonight including Salam. Haven't seen him since Portland last year. He's doing well, training Ultimate Fighters and some cyclists too. 

Starting tomorrow I'm doing a documentary internet video clip series leading up to Nationals. There will be one to two video clips a day up on Specialized.com and I think Cyclingnews.com too leading up to Nationals. Not sure of the specifics but I'll find out tomorrow.

Winston is hanging out with Doug and the family for a few days. He will have 5 dogs and a few cats to play with. He's gonna be tired. 

I have been getting into "Flash Forward". I really like that show but now it's off until March. Every time I get into a show it goes off the air, Lost, Hank Med and now Flash Forward. I gotta find a better way to spend my free time. Myron is washing wheels and Meg is watching Dateline. We have 3 TVs in this Residence Inn and I think they're all on a different channel. Jeez. 

I wonder if it's gonna snow here on Sunday..... 

 

2 Days Left

I have 2 days of training in Durango left for the year. Actually, I only have 2 full days left in Durango for the year. I've spent more time here in 09 then I have in any recent years. It's been awesome. Yesterday I rode the Colorado trail and this was as snowy as it got. The worst part was actually in the canyon about 2 minutes from the parking lot. After that it was great. 

 Winston has been sharing his food lately with "Cowboy". I don't think he likes "Cowboy" that much though since he always ends up outside. 

 

The temperatures in Durango dropped last night. It's about 10 degrees out right now at 8am. It's always cold at 6,500 feet in December but it hasn't been this cold in a while. Here's a shot from the race this weekend. 

 

And one from the Mt Krumpet

 

Meg was hanging out with the Grinch on Sunday night. 

 
 When she wasn't hanging out with Ned and the Buckeye. 

 

The race promoter and crew at the post race party. Thanks for a great weekend.  

 

I finished "Running with the Buffaloes" a few days ago. It was a great book. I never ran cross country but it gives you the inside scoop on CU's build up to the NCAA championship in 98 I think. It's amazing how much those runners get hurt. In order to be good you have to run a ton but if you run a lot you are bound to get injured. 

 
 Well I have a busy day, dentist, doctor, training, tire gluing, packing, dinner with Gilby and I have to find my really warm gloves. 

I wonder what Myrons' doing right now....