Wells finishes the season with third place in Iowa
Specialized Racing: XC MTB | November 28, 2011
Capping off a three-day weekend of Jingle Cross Rock racing in Iowa City, Iowa, Specialized's Todd Wells finished third on Sunday. It wasn't just the end of a weekend of racing for Wells, but the end of a very successful 2011 season.
"Racing three days of cross in a row is pretty intense," said Wells. "I enjoyed doing all three. Today was a hard race, but a great way to finish off the season."
Following Saturday's mud bath, the rains stopped and racers faced better course conditions but colder temperatures on Sunday.
"It was just cold and windy with temperatures in the upper 30s. The course had dried up from yesterday because it wasn't raining. It was more of a peanut butter type of mud than a splattery type of mud."
The courses were different for all three days of racing and while the final day of action took advantage of the large hill at the venue, racers found that the overall lap required far less running than the previous day. "Yesterday, we had to run the descent. Today, it was completely ride-able. Overall, we were much more on our bikes today."
From the beginning of the race, Tim Johnson and Jamie Driscoll got a gap on Wells of about five to 10 seconds. Wells held the gap for the first half of the race, then in the second half, Johnson got away from Driscoll. At first, Wells closed a bit on Driscoll, then both leaders opened it up on the Specialized rider in the final two laps.
"I felt good out there today. I was just lacking that little extra to get up to those guys," said yesterday's winner Wells, who finished at 1:03 after the leader today. "The hill was a long climb, but it was cool because we had a technical descent. It was a fun course."
Compared to many 'cross courses, there was more time spent climbing. There was a run-up mid-climb and after racers got back on at the top of a steep section, they still faced another at least 45 seconds of uphill.
The two men who beat Wells had sat out Saturday's race although the US cyclo-cross national champion noted that they were so strong on Friday that he would have expected nothing less of them to be near the front even if they had raced all three days.
Wells stuck with the same equipment set-up he had consistently used all 'cross season; he raced a Specialized Crux bike with Specialized Terra tires.
Following a lengthy season of mountain bike racing and 'cross racing and keeping in mind the upcoming 2012 Olympic season, US mountain bike national champion Wells called an end to his 2011 season effective this weekend as he had planned. He's looking forward to kicking off some down time with a trip to Mexico... without his bike.
Wells expects to resume racing the first weekend of March in 2012 with the US Pro XCT opener in Bonelli Park, California.