Todd Wells

Ride

Ride is meeting at 10am tomorrow at the cattle guard, not 9:30.

Happy 4th of July

The Tour has finally started and that means I'll be getting some great rest these next 3 weeks. I usually watch in the morning, afternoon and night. It the most time I spend on the couch all year except when I'm sick. 

After my east coast training trip I had a good break. I worked on the backyard patio, it started like this: 

And now it looks a little better. Not great, but better. 

Rude and I did a big week of training this past week. We logged in a bunch of high country rides. Here is a shot of Rude and Ducky on the Kenebec ride. 

Not too much snow up there. We also did the Molas/Cascade a few days ago. 

This ride on the other hand was pretty muddy. You can't tell from this shot but there is quite a bit of snow melt going on up at 11,000 feet right now. Tad started the ride with us but crashed and busted his clavicle. He didn't think it was broken and set out to ride the road back to the car but was in too much pain to ride and just hiked out to the road. I bet he'll be back soon. On our rest week we hit the links with him and Evan. 

I also went roosting up in the high country with HB about a week ago. He tried floating his bike down the river on one creek crossing and I couldn't make it over any of the hundred of downed logs. While HB was floating down the river, I was taking this picture of the rig. 

I'm not a fan of camelbacks but I've been using the HAWG quite a bit lately since I've been riding the Stumpjumper on all these high country rides and it only has one bottle cage. I try to fill it up as little as possible so it's not too heavy. I've also been using it on the moto. 

Tomorrow we're doing a MTB group ride up Junction Creek and down the Colorado trail pretty hard if anyone wants to go. Probably be at the cattle guard around 9:30 if you want to go, should take around 3-3:30 hours. 

Town is off the chain right now for the 4th. I can't remember the last time I saw as many people in town as I did yesterday. Everyone from Durango heads out to the lakes and mountains for the weekend and everyone from out of town comes to Durango for the weekend. 

Winston has been kicking it at Dog Park lately, leaving his tennis balls in the river for his buddies down in Aztec. We floated the river with Powers and Emily yesterday, Powers was wearing some type of Sheik head ware and had a tube that was 6 inches around on one side and 3 feet on the other. Not optimal for the rapids. 

Almost time to go train, I wonder if it's going to rain today......

Rude's Cycling Dirt Interview after Jersey

Cycling Videos on CyclingDirt

EZ Week

This EZ week is killing me. I've been taking it easy on the training this week but the landscaping has been in overdrive. My backyard has been neglected for years. The trees I cut down this fall and spring have been trying to grow back and went from stump to 8 foot tall pile of weeds. I also installed a new patio in the backyard, planted a bunch of flowers, some veggies and laid down a bunch of mulch. I'm worked. 

My hands are all tore up from loading 54 16X16 brick blocks unto a cart at the Home Depot, then 54 blocks into the truck from the cart, then 54 more blocks from the truck to the backyard.  

Other then yard work I've managed to hit a few golf balls up at the Crest. I'm rusty but since I haven't played in a long time I have no expectations so it's almost more fun. Went motoing up on the Hermosa Creek trail from the house. Didn't do the whole trail but it was awesome to be able to ride from my house to the trail. Today Rude, Timons, Snoodle and I went tubing. It was hot and sunny when we dropped off the car but by the time we got on the river it had clouded up. Then right before TT got dumped out of his tube it started thundering and lightening. 

Now Meg and I are watching Super Bad and Winston is chillaxing on the chair. 

I wonder what the Darts' doing right now....

Where do I even begin....

This site needs some serious love, I know. I have had so many great things to blog about lately but no internet access. Now I seem to have forgotten all of my stories so here is a brief recap of the past week or two. 

Rude and I went back east after the Colorado Springs PRO XCT to do some sea level training. Now you might be thinking, who goes to sea level for training. Well if you've been following the three Astana guys training and racing schedule you know they have been spending a few weeks at altitude here and there to get ready for the Giro and the Tour. They probably logged in a total of 4 or 5 weeks at altitude all year. Since I live at 6,500 ft year round the challenge isn't to ride in thin air and boost blood cells but to ride in thick air and boost power. Doing intervals at sea level I can produce at least 50 to 60 more watts per interval which translates into much stronger muscles wether working at sea level or even at altitude. 

O.K., that's enough training philosophy. I rode in the rain for almost the entire week we were back in N.Y./N.J.. The climbs around my family's house like Overlook mountain in Woodstock, N.Y. haven't seemed to get any easier. They might seem shorter after riding and racing on some of the biggest climbs in the world but they are so steep in some sections you can't ride them in the saddle. After two days hanging out at the family's house we drove down to Princeton, N.J. for the Giro Di Jersey. Now I'll give you a brief recap of the race but let me just say this, I will never do that race again. It was great training and that is exactly what I was looking for but I feel bad for the people who were racing it for a result because it was the most unorganized race I have ever done and I've done some doozies. 

Day 1: 90 person field, 800 meter, 4 corner crit with 2 off camber corners and no straight longer then 200 meters. The start/finish straight went from 4 lanes wide to a 90 degree right hand corner framed by 2 telephone poles. There were crashes from the start even before a car pulled into the course on the 1 downhill narrow street. They were giving everyone free laps but the finish line was only 50 meters from the 1st corner and they would let everyone in right as the front of the field went by which would result a flying field and a much slower moving group all trying to squeeze into a 90 degree single lane corner. You guessed it, more crashes. Only about 30 to 40 people finished on the lead lap but somehow they gave over 60 people the same time and people that did get lapped even in the middle of the race only lost a minute or 2. Never seen anything like it. Luckily it didn't rain even though it was threatening. 

Day 2: Pouring rain. Lined the riders up at 9am to start and the cops had a flat tire or something so everyone stood in the 65 degree pouring rain until 9:40 when we finally started the circuit. They decided we would do a neutral 1st out of 8 laps b/c the course was very dangerous and then everyone would have a chance to see it before going full blast at it. Halfway through the 12 mile loop half the field crashed on a slick downhill. I grabbed my brakes to stop before it but my front wheel went out and I went sliding for about 100 feet on my hip before popping up. I ripped my shorts but the road was so slippery I didn't get any road rash. Have you ever slid 100 feet on anything with out getting road rash? Me neither. After the crash they decided to cancel the race because of safety. Rude and I spent the next 2 or 3 hours riding in the rain to get some training in. 

Day 3: Sunny and 14 mile TT. Rude and I didn't bring TT bikes so we weren't expecting too much. THe course was out and back with no instructions about the turn around, signs, anything on the line or in the race bible. There was a sign that said 60 meters to go after 5 miles. Some people turned around after the sign even though no one was there to direct them to. When I went I saw the 60 meter sign but knew I had only ridden 5 miles so far. I kept going and eventually there was a small cone with a person standing by it that only motioned for me to turn there after I was right on top of him. I didn't ride a fast TT but some of the people that turned around early only got small penalties and some people went past the cone and regardless of how far past they went they got a 2 minute time bonus. Like I said, never seen anything like that. 

Day 4: Pouring rain road race circuit race with 2 wooden planked bridges, 1, 300 meters before the finish after a 40 mph downhill. Best day of the race, good 3 minute climb with lots of rollers and plenty of attacking. Rude got off in a break with Guptil on the second to last lap with two other guys. They stayed away to the finish but Rude got chain suck after bouncing over the bridge before the finish line and had to walk it across the line for 4th. Classic Rude. The SRAM neutral support guy had to break the chain to get it unwrapped from his crank arm. 

Day 5: Light rain short 1 hour, 2 mile circuit. Had one short climb, one off camber painted turn with open roads and the yellow line rule. Almost like a crit open to traffic. They also couldn't put down a start/finish line b/c the tape wouldn't stick to the road in the rain. There were time bonus sprints and the race finished in a field sprint. I would think a finish line is pretty important in a road race. The rain stopped towards the end of the race and the only crazy thing happened on the last lap when a van was parked in the apex of the corner less then 1 mile from the finish. Luckily no one crashed but it was hairy. A great day of training. 

The race was great for training even if I did hurt my hip a little bit in the crash the one day. There weren't any big name riders there but with no real dominate team everyone was attacking and it made for a fast, hard exciting race. Not just a big team controlling the race by riding tempo all day. Will Duggen the CX racer was there and he was looking really strong, he will be one to look out for in the U23 CX races this year. My best result was 9th in the two sprints in the circuit races which wasn't so much about sprinting but positioning. 

I am so excited to be back in Durango after my dreary east coast trip. It was sunny and 85 degrees when I got home yesterday. I rode some bitch'n single track, went to the river with Meg and Winston and had dinner with Meg, Snoodle, Rude and Powers at Burger Night and then went to pint night and hung out with Chris Herting for a little while. The day doesn't get much better then that. 

Now I have some serious weed pulling to do in the backyard and not like the kind the Missle is doing. 

I wonder if I'm going to go camping this weekend.......

Intervals

Had a bit of sunshine today, my shoes even dried out. Rude and I did some intervals on Overlook mountain in Woodstock. There was a ton of traffic, not sure where everyone was going but it seemed like we were constantly being passed by cars. 

This Universal Sports channel is awesome. Today we watched a 2 hour recap of the first 2 weeks of the Giro. That long TT looked awesome, it should be faster to ride a normal bike in all TTs or you might as well just do them on a turbo trainer. 

Tomorrow we're off to the Garden state(N.J.), also home of the Sopranos for the Giro. It is looking like a 60% chance of rain everyday this week for the race. The temperatures are suppose to be warm so I'm not too worried about that. When it rains on the East Coast in the summer you don't get cold, just soggy. When it rains in Colorado in the summer you freeze and have to stand under trees until it stops. I haven't done a road race since this weekend last year in Connecticut, the week before Worlds in Italy. 

Here is the video from the XC in Colorado Springs this past weekend.

My Mom and Dad got a new dog, Jazz from the SPCA as a rescue from New Orleans. She is pretty shy and skittish but she has been warming up to Rude and I the past few days. She doesn't bark anymore when we come in the room and she played fetch with us this morning. Big improvement from a few days ago. 

I wonder if my dirt bike is going to start when I get home..........

Pro XCT Short Track Win #2

This year has been a good one for me with short tracks. I've won both so far and now have a pretty good lead in the series as of now. There are only 2 left so hopefully I can keep it going. I don't think I've ever done a short track with as much single track as the race this weekend in Colorado Springs. We only lined up 5 wide and luckily I had a front row start. From there I was either 1st or 2nd for the entire race. I wish they were all like that. Check it out....

I didn't have much time to enjoy the win since less then 24 hours later I was suffering in the XC. The XC didn't go as well as the STXC. I rode in the lead group with JHK and Plaxton for most of the 3rd of 4 laps until getting unhitched on the descent. I spent the rest of the day going solo and wound up 3rd. Not too bad but not quite a W. 

Sunday night we drove up to DIA so Myron could fly out and Rude I flew out the next day for the Giro di Jersey. That's right, we're hanging out in NY today and tomorrow before heading south to start the Giro on Wednesday. We spent 3 hours slogging around the Catskills today since by the time we woke up it was starting to rain. The Giro is a 5 day road stage race in the Princeton area. We're looking to get some good power training in before Nationals and the World Cups. 

The Dauphine and the Tour De Suisse have been on today so we've had some good TV viewing while drying out from the ride. 

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

Cowboy Country

Me and the Misses took a big trip in the Tundra this weekend up to Vail for the Teva Games. 

We didn't even have to take our hats off in the truck. The race was alright, wasn't planning on going until the last minute so it didn't end up too bad. I did it on a team with Hagman, some awesome runner Ricky and a female kayaker. We won the team competition so I think we all get an extra K in addition to the normal prize money. It felt like an old school Colorado race with a super strong field, lots of spectators, great prize money and no pressure. Oh yea, and it started above 8,000 ft. 

Snoodle got a new bike this weekend and the Jamis team actually got all it's feeds. We have been cracking each other up all week with the SNL Justin Timberlake skit "Classic Peg in Target". It just never gets old. 

I did a sweet ride this morning with the Durango Devo U14 kids. They all have great handling skills, killer fitness and are super nice kids. Most of them will be heading to Nationals up in Sol Vista in a few weeks so watch out for em. 

Check out this article from the Vail Daily, I could see this happening to my Dad since he loves to drink beer while mowing the lawn. 

I rode about 100 miles of the way home on Sunday after the race. It snowed on me in Leadville and was 39 degrees. I don't train in weather that cold in the winter. If you love winter Leadville is the place to be, at 10,200 ft it doesn't get too warm there. Vail was pretty chilly too this weekend but the single track and the scenery was killer. 

I wonder which bike I"m going to race at the Colorado Springs ProXCT this weekend, Stumpjumper 29er or Epic...........

Learner's Permit

I got my motorcycle learners permit yesterday. Missed 4 out of 25 though on the test so I barely passed. Did you know they say you are more likely to get hit by a car making a U-turn then someone opening a door while riding past a line of parked cars? No way, I've almost been nailed many times by doors but never by a car making a U-turn. 

I also started the paper work process of getting my dirt bike street legal. I had to buy DOT approved tires and zip tie an air horn onto the bike. I'm picking the wheels up today with the new tires and hopefully getting some license plates after that. I had never taken the wheels off the bike before so that was fun. I'm more worried about putting them back on then taking them off. 

Winston and I hit the BMX track yesterday for a few laps, today I'm hoping to hit the trails. I'm taking 3 days off and then 2 more days really ez this week. Meg talked me out of getting my wisdom teeth pulled in the middle of the season yesterday so I'm not suffering at all today. I'm thinking of hitting up the Teva Games now too this weekend. With no training this week it will surely hurt but it's so close and Meg can see her family if we go. 

I hit some golf balls the other day and I am pretty rusty. I couldn't even make it through a whole bucket of balls. Rude, Gilby and I might play 9 today if I can get this dirt bike stuff taken care of pretty quickly. 

Susi is doing some race in Prague today that is all on stairs, sounds bumpy. 

I wonder what the Dart is doing right now...

The South

We're living large at the Bump and Grind. The flights were great, our bags made it and weather is perfect. I hope we don't get beat up for speaking in our "southern voice" in the wrong situation. Last night the hostess at the restaurant asked Rude and I to take off our hats, they do things different down here.

The Maples are a staple of Durango. The family has run the Coke plant in town since it's inception. There is an article in the new Durango Magazine about the family. 

 

Flying out of Durango we had this guy on our flight. Check out his sweet duffel bag and backpack. 

When we got to Birmingham we ran into to Greg in the airport. His teammates left him stranded at the airport last minute but luckily we had room in our car and Rude had an extra bed in his hotel room. Greg's free hub blew up yesterday too so needless to say he isn't having the best trip so far. Sometimes that's when you end up having your best races though. 

Thursday, Bowman and I went roosting up in Mancos on the Alpine Loop. We only got to do a portion of the ride though because Bowman's radiator blew up halfway in. Luckily it was mostly uphill till that point so he could coast/push most of the way out and I was able to drive pretty far in and pick him up. We were riding up at like 10,000 ft and it was freezing, muddy and lots of puddles. The trails were really fast and I actually got it into 4th and 5th gear a couple times. 

The Pro course runs the opposite direction of the amateur at the Bump and Grind. I'm looking forward to riding on a closed course today after having a few near head on collisions with other riders yesterday. There's a lot of single track and a long downhill paved road section. The course is much different then the World Cups we've been doing but should be fun. 

I wonder if Winston is playing with Sammy right now.....