Todd Wells

St Anne

We made it to St Anne. We left at 8:30am and arrived at the condo at 8pm. That's almost 12 hours of travel door to door. It is much longer then driving but pretty relaxing too to fly.

The course here uses most of the same trails as in the past but goes different directions on them. They have built the coolest bridges I have ever ridden over in a race. They are usually squared off edges with no transitions, just 2 ramps up on a table type of design. These bridges have sweet transitions and they are more like something you would see in a skate park. Rad! All course bridges should be built like that.

The course is also completely dry and where there is usually mud even if it isn't rainy there is 5 inches of dust/sand. I'm going to ride the 29er Epic because this course is rough when it's wet so when it's dry it's really rough.

I didn't drop at all in the UCI ranking after last weekend so I'm number 13 and should start number 12 since the little Footlicker is racing U23. That will be my best ever start position for Worlds and due in large part to the good race I had at Worlds last year finishing 8.

The Dart and I played some golf after training yesterday and it was a blast. He is really good for never playing since the last time he swung a club was in Durango before we went to the Olympics in 08. No course records but I did play with some real "wooden" woods that are smaller then the irons of today.

Claire has been making her famous lunches all week and my knee is almost completely healed from the Leadville crash so I can get massage on my stomach with out wincing. The Dart and I are doing the Team Relay tomorrow so we're going to do some more course recon and pin it out there for a bit today. The last time I rode the team relay for the US was in 2001 when Worlds were in Vail and it was my first season back from the Corporate/School world. It's an honor to take part in the relay and I hope I can do a good time for the team.

I might hit the pool today for a a few minutes to get ready for my South Beach trip a week from Friday, there is always something to train for.

Big thanks to Ken Bell for the copy of "Chasing Legends". Ken made "Off Road to Athens" with Gripped Films I believe and it was the coolest XC movie I've ever seen. The CL movie is about the HTC team at the Tour in 2009. It is also an awesome film I would suggest it to anyone that loves cycling.

That's all from St Anne. Did I mention the condos here now have A/C(new for me for this year) and the temperatures have been in the 90s and humid, strange for this time of year in St Anne. Everyone's grass is brown and none of the lakes have any water in them either.

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

N.Y.

Another W.C. in the books. It was a mixed bag for me back in Windham. I felt good on course but didn't have much luck. A poor start, flat tire on the first descent that turned into a run to the techzone. Running in any MTB race sucks but if you have to run in a WC that isn't because of mud it's going to be a long day.

Got a new wheel and was off again, in 75th place. Made it back up to 24th by the end which isn't a good result on it's own but given the day wasn't too bad. I felt strong all day and actually passed people on the last lap instead of cracking and getting passed which is my usual MO. I was hoping for a big result but there's still one race left to go for it.

The team did pretty well with Susi landing on the podium in 4th and the Dart flatting out of the lead group at the end. I think it could have been an awesome day for everyone if we had a little bit of luck.

The course was in perfect condition, the weather was beautiful and it was great to have the support of the family there. I rode the Epic 29er and I was gaining so much time on the downhill. That bike is amazing.

I got to debut my new Stars and Stripes kit as well this weekend. I can't think of a better venue to premiere it then at the first ever World Cup finals less then 1 hour away from where I grew up in NY.

As racing goes, you're only as good as your last race so I'm hoping for a good one this weekend. We're on our way up to Quebec right now and it will be the first time I've ever flown from Albany to Quebec. It's going to take as long as driving but I not going to complain because the drive up to Quebec is my least favorite ever.

The Schmooz and I are sitting at the Buck waiting for Claire and Burry to finish checking in. Sundays are nice days to travel since the volume seems light and the staff pretty friendly. I know I'm going to jinx myself but I haven't paid a bike fee since Sea Otter this year.

Happy Birthday to the Schultz Man and I have to say his new Incognito haircut by Doug looks good.

I wonder what Meg and the family are doing today.....

New York

The trip back to N.Y. was flawless today. I slept great even though I had to get up at 5 am and leave at 5:10 to get to the airport for my 6:20 am flight. Everything was on time and I slept through 2 of the 3 flights and got upgraded the whole way. Had time to snag a Que Bueno breakfast burrito in DIA and made it into Albany 10 minutes. All my bags showed up and I got a ride with Gully to the venue from the airport so Benno didn't have to come get me. He seems to be bored though so I think he was looking forward to coming to get me. 

It's really cool right now for this time of year in N.Y., only 70 degrees today. The air is so thick right now it's almost like it's raining with out the rain. The place we're staying is pretty nice and I even have my own room for the weekend since no rooms have 2 beds but they all have living rooms and kitchens. 

The Dart got his new 29er Stumpjumper 2011 and the bike is super light. We have some new tires we're testing out but they might be too narrow for this course. They are super light though and his size "M" bike with the 1.8 tires is crazy light, almost like a road bike. 

I have been so hungry lately it seems like as soon as I finish eating I'm hungry again. No amount of hard boiled eggs seems to satisfy my appetite. One thing that does fill the belly is one of those amazing cup cakes from The Carrot place next to ZIA. Calling it a cupcake doesn't do it justice though, it's more like a piece of cake art. They are so good and I can't wait for cyclocross season so I can start trying all the flavors. 

It's great to be back with the team (sans Lene who is sitting out this one because she's just starting to get healthy). Even Bobby is here and every time the team gets together, no matter how long it's been since we've seen each other it's like we never left. It's awesome. 

No one of the "S" team has ridden the course yet because it's been so rainy. It sounds like not much has changed since last year though from hearing what people said that have rode it. One thing that will be different is we start in the middle of downtown. That means we race on a road for about 1K up to the ski resort before hitting the course. That's good news for people starting at the back but bad news for those of us starting towards the front. It will be like a road race fight for position the whole way up but at least it's a pretty straight shot. 

I don't know what to do with myself with my own room and all this space. I wonder what Winston and Meg are doing right now......

The Ridge

Jim and Iri always make me look better then I am. They did it again with this video from last weekend's race. 
 

 Today Rude and I hit the Single Speed World Course climb and Ridge section. The ridge is our most technical riding in Durango. It's funny because it's one of the original trails before we had tubeless tires, 29ers and XC full suspension bikes. It's sandstone rock like Moab but if you dab on some sections you're falling off a cliff and there are tons of rock bridges now. We made it out unharmed today. I usually crash at least once up there but I guess I did enough of that last weekend. 

I also rode 2 of my favorite trails in Horse Gulch that Mike Wilk happened to build. The Wilky Way finishes with a steep rock shoot and a rock at the bottom you can roll/drop over. The other trail is Skull Rock, it use to be really rough but has been ridden in and with all the rain is in perfect shape. 

Winston and I hit the river for a bit and Rude and I got in 16 holes up at the Crest, would have finished if the lightening hadn't rolled in. 

I spent a good portion of last night peeling off perfectly good Dugast 34 tires from my sweet Zipp 303s. This year the UCI in their infinite wisdom decided the largest tire you can run for CX is a 33. That's means I'm going to be inhaling a lot of glue fumes and will have sticky fingers for a while. 

I'm looking forward to CX season because I can start eating sandwiches again for lunch instead of salads. I'm also going to be eating a lot more pizza when the courses stop going uphill in a few weeks. 

We just got some new even lighter 29er tires that I'm hoping to use in Windham. 

The Burn Notice and Royal Pains are stacking up and I have to get to bed at a decent hour so I can get up early for my hyperpoxic intervals. 

I wonder if I'm going to race in Telluride this weekend......

Cross

I can't believe cylcocross is coming up so fast. I haven't even thought about it and now I'm already getting stuff together and trying to make travel plans. Time flies. 

My golf game is coming back together after visiting Dr. Frank yesterday and getting readjusted. I was pretty out of whack after that crash and I still have a pretty sore arm and back. I feel much better though after getting adjusted and my swing seems to be back on track as well. 

So I'm hoping since they changed the UCI rules regarding barriers in cross the promoters will make a bunch of bunny hoppable barriers. In the past they had to put them very close together and make them exactly 40 CM. Now they can be any distance apart and only up to 40 CMs. They can also have more then 1 set per lap and sand pits are back in. I hope they make the courses more technical now with more emphasis on mounting, dismounting, hoping and running. I think the spectators would love it and the racers would like it too. 

The bummer with the new rules is that you are only allowed to have a 33 MM tire. All my tires from last year are 34s but I'm hoping when I measure them they are actually only 33s so I can glue a few less tires. I'm looking forward to getting my new cross bikes since there are big changes with them for this year. I'm also looking forward to the new look of the Specialized CX team, big things to come. 

Before the CX season starts I have some unfinished business on the MTB. The biggest races of the year are in the next few weeks and now that I've recovered from Leadville I have a few hard training days to come. Some Hyperoxic lab intervals, a bit of motor pacing and some STXC practice are all in the works. I also have a few more plyo/core workouts on tap before WC Finals and World Champs. 

I had a lot of stuff I was going to write about but seem to be drawing a blank right now. I have to mount up some new S-Works MTB shoes and Meg and I are planning our NYC/South Beach vacation after Worlds. How did we plan any travel before the internet? 

I wonder when the Dart is moving into his new oceanside residence.....

Leadville Race Report

Leadville 100 8/14 Race Report:

 

That is one long race! This past weekend was my first mountain bike hundred miler and maybe my last. It was unlike any race I have ever done before. The Leadville 100 is a one hundred mile out and back mountain bike race that takes place mostly between 10,000 and 12,600 feet.

The course is made up mostly of fire-road, asphalt road and less then one mile of single track. It rolls most of the time but has five major climbs that are pretty long but all ride able. The downhills have a few rocks but are mostly wide open and fast. There isn’t that much shelter on the course so a lot of the time you’re exposed to the wind whipping up the valleys.

The race starts at 6:30 AM in downtown Leadville. All 1,400 competitors start together and do a neutral downhill start for four miles. It’s pretty scary rolling downhill while it’s still partially dark and forty degrees with all the racers of different ability levels going about thirty five miles an hour bar to bar. After the neutral start we hit the dirt road and the race started to string out. We had to dodge a few cows before hit the first climb.

I thought we would take it easy in the beginning but I was breathing hard after just ten minutes into the race and we went over the first climb with a group of just six riders. The group swelled a bit on the road descent and by the time we started the next climb we were a group of maybe twelve. The second climb was only about twenty-five minutes and when we reached the top we were a group of only five and Ned was in there along with JHK, Levi and Shriver. That was when my day took a turn for the worse.

We were rolling across the top and I was on Levi’s wheel when he suddenly slammed on his brakes and turned off course while going about twenty miles an hour. I didn’t have time to react and slammed into him crashing hard and ripping out the spokes in my front wheel and flatting. I was dazed but by the time I got up Ned was giving me his front wheel and I was off again and caught the group going down the Powerline descent.

We rode together in a group of about ten until the 3,000 ft Columbine climb at the forty-two mile mark. I couldn’t follow the pace of JHK and Levi and had to let go after about fifteen minutes of climbing. I rode with Bishop to the top and was hoping to keep the gap small and close it on the descent. That didn’t happen though and I was two minutes behind JHK and Levi going through the aid station at the bottom of the climb and had dropped Bishop so I was on my own. After dodging racers coming the opposite direction for about fifteen miles and having some very close calls I rode the rest of the race by myself. I had about fifteen miles of rolling head wind before the climbs started again and I would have given anything to have someone to swap pulls with.  

I was pretty much done by the time I hit the last two climbs and couldn’t believe I made it up them because I was riding so slowly. I also ran out of water and had the dehydration white mouth thing going but I think everyone did. I managed to hang on for third and was pretty happy to get off my bike after 6:30 of riding. First thing I did was chug a few bottles of water, press conference and then off for more pain of cleaning out my wounds.

I’ll take the pain of an XC or CX race anytime where you don’t have time to think about how much pain you’re in until after the event. This race was a notch lower so you could fully take in the state you were in the entire time. I couldn’t believe how many citizen riders finished in the twelve hour cut off time and how many had really fast times. I hope I don’t have to do that race again for a long time.

Mornings

This guys is king of the castle. 

I did my favorite high country ride yesterday, Molas to Cascade. The trail was in awesome shape even with all the rain, velcro out there. I wanted to make it a little longer but the problem is once you get over the 4 hour range on the trails you need to take a camel back and I prefer to not use them. I will if I have to but given the choice I'll carry 3 bottles. 

Carbon Ti is an awesome sponsor. They make super light weight skewers, seat clamps and stem caps. Check out my new seat clamp on the Epic 29er, everything has our names on it. 

 

Well here is a cover I was very happy to see:

 
 Willow has been killing it since last year and never seems to get the credit she deserves. Bronze medal at Worlds, leading the World Cup this year, those aren't some small races, thats the pinnacle of our sport. I'm glad to see her getting some well deserved press and the article is good as well. Congrats Willow and keep up the good work. 

While on the topic of covers, I saw this one in the airport on the way to Europe a few weeks ago. 

 

First Tomac defines mountain bike racing for a decade or more and now his son is set to be the next Bubba Stewart or pretty damn good at the very least. I'd say that family has some skills when it comes two wheels. The Durango area is all over the magazine stands this month. 

I'm hoping they have coverage of World Marathon Championships tomorrow somewhere on the web. I haven't heard of anyone covering the race so if you know something I don't please let me know. Good luck to the Dart and Susi, I'm sure they're gonna do awesome. 

It's looking like it might rain again today so I'm heading out into the Gulch before the sky opens up. If it stays dry, Rude and I might go play some golf down in Farmington. 

I wonder how many jars of Nutella the Dart has gone through in Germany this week waiting for Worlds....

Dumping

It has been raining here in Durango like crazy lately. The past few years my yard was completely brown by now, I get a sprinkler system this year and now it's raining all the time. At least the trails are like velcro a few hours after it stops. 

So I made it back home and it is good to be back. I don't know what it is about flying back home to the U.S. but it always takes me much longer to get adjusted to the time then going over to Europe. These grey mornings don't help either, although yesterday was sunny. Last night our neighbors house across the street got hit by lightning and it was super loud. The hairs on my arms were standing up. 

I have taken the past few days off, was finally ready to get up in the high country today and now it doesn't look like it's going to happen. Oh well. I'm not staying up at DMR for Leadville either, too much time away from home. I feel like I haven't been able to really prepare for Leadville so I'm just going to keep my focus on WC finals and World Champs and just see how it works out. I did do some filming the past few days for the Leadville movie though so I'm hoping I don't suck there. 

My golf game is coming back around too the past few days. Rude, Barthel and I have been tearing up the links. I was hoping to get out tonight but this rain might push my ride back into my golf time. 

The Dart and Susi are in Germany getting ready for Marathon Worlds. The Dart is going to race the 29er Stumpjumper. He says the course is super smooth and fast. 

I managed to not gain much weight on my Euro trip. I usually pack on the pounds pretty quickly at sea level, especially while spending most of the day in bed with a Nutella jar and tablespoon. This trip must have been short enough though to not pile in too many calories. 

Meg left the day I got back to go to a Power Balance party in Hollywood with Willow and her friend Heather. They flew out to L.A. just for the party and Meg said it was awesome. They got to see Flo Rider perform and meet him along with some other celebs. 

I avoid doing real world chores at all costs but with this rain I'm thinking about taking care of some actual business. Usually I can find an excuse to put it off but it seems like the perfect time right now and Winston thinks it's a good idea. 

I wonder what the Darts' up to right now.....

Stuck

Rarely do I get stuck in Denver but this is my second time this year. I had awesome travel yesterday all the way to Denver and then I got whammied. My flight to Durango got canceled because of thunderstorms and the only availability they had was today. There was another flight I could have tried to go standby on but it was delayed and oversold so I decided to just head to the hotel. 

The problem with flying back to the US is you fall asleep right away but also wake up right away. I logged in a solid 4 hours last night before I woke up at 3am for good. Then I laid in bed watching "Saved by the Bell" until it was time to come back to the airport. At least I got a Que Bueno breakfast burrito for my trouble. It's only 7am though and I feel like it's about 9 at night. 

The WC this weekend went alright. I seem to be bad luck for the guys I line up behind though as they all seem to have start line issues. Kulhavy flipped over on the start line at Houffalize when I was behind him and Footlicker popped out of his pedal right at the start in front of me this weekend. Instead of taking advantage of the 2nd row I lined up on I was relegated to the low 30s coming through the start the first time. I was feeling good though and moved up into the mid teens by lap 3 and proceeded to go backwards on the last lap. No matter how much I try to save myself in the race when I'm feeling good I always seem to go backwards at the end. I have to get back to not trying to save anything and just ride on the rivet the whole time since I fade no matter what. 

I can't believe how well the Scott guys are riding, taking down Absalon 2 weeks in a row. He does have a brand new baby that is traveling around with him so maybe he's lacking some sleep but it's still super impressive. He has been the most dominate XC MTBer ever with the most WC wins and he's still pretty young so I'm sure he has more to come. 

Now I'm really looking forward to Windham and Worlds. The World Cups went OK, not great and not horrible but I felt like I was close to being able to make something happen. And I just figured out I have 2 weeks after Leadville instead of just 1 to get ready for the WC. I should be over my jet lag by then. 

The Dart and Susi are off to Marathon World Champs this weekend in Germany. They will have to contend with Hermida, Naef, Wolfram, Alban and I'm sure a bunch of other fast guys. It should be a great race for them though as they are always super strong at the long races like Cape Epic. 

My eyes are burning already from looking at the keyboard so I better wrap this up. Hope you're feeling better Lene. Enjoy the vacation. 

 

I wonder if Winston is going to meet me at the airport.....

Some Pictures.

This is the Schmooz showing off the new Specialized Prevail helmet. I think it makes him look stately. 

 

I finally got my name on another set of brakes. They are on my Epic 29er though and I'm racing the hardtail this weekend so I guess they won't see any race time for a few weeks. 

 

Here is Claire in the midst of preparing one of her World famous lunches. 

So even the staff on our team are celebrities. Claire and Sandy were both on the cover of Cycling Weekly, a U.K. magazine back when they were racing. Claire was racing on the track and Sandy on the road. 

When I come to Europe I gain weight instantly. It's not from eating a bunch of rich delicious food either. I think it has to do with a few factors. 1, the races are so hard I can't train much between them, I just try to recover. 2. When I'm out of my normal environment food is a comfort. 3. The giant Nutella jar is usually with in arms reach of my bed where I spend most of the day. 4. I don't burn any calories walking around the golf course. 5. My entire day revolves around eating. 

So the course dried out perfectly overnight and there are sections that are still powdery dust. The climbs are really steep here and it is going to be a great course if you are strong and hard course if you aren't. 

The World Cup schedule for next year is out and it has changed from when it was first released. Now Sea Otter is the week before the first race in S.A. Then there is a month off before Dalby Forest and Offenburg. I like SA but that is a long trip from Sea Otter. I'm thinking maybe of flying to Europe first and then down instead of direct from the U.S. through Dakar. That way you can have almost a day of walking around once you get to Europe before getting the overnight flight to Joburg. 

I just knocked out my book and watched what I think is my last Mentalist last night. I'm running out of entertainment just in the nick of time. 

I wonder if Winston is going to pick me up at the airport on Sunday.....