Todd Wells

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Todd Wells was born December 25, 1975 in Kingston, N.Y. He fell in love with the bicycle at an early age starting with BMX from the age of five through sixteen. After graduating high school he picked up his first mountain bike and has been on a tear ever since. He found his way out to Durango, CO where he attended Fort Lewis College and began a pursuit of his career in cycling.

Wells won two Cross Country Mountain Bike Collegiate titles for Fort Lewis College and the inaugural Semi Pro NORBA National Series title in 1996 before taking a break from his studies to become a full time professional cyclist with the Specialized Mountain Dew team.

His initial professional career was short lived as he decided to hang up his wheels at the end of the 1998 season and finish his collegiate studies at the University of Arizona. In 2000 he graduated from the University of Arizona with a B.S. in Management Information Systems and immediately started working for I.B.M., a company he interned with during his time as a student.

Wells quickly realized that being a bike racer was better then having a “real” job and started training once again with his sights set on returning to the professional ranks. Some good results landed him a contract with the Mongoose Hyundai team and he was back on the circuit full time by the end of 2001.

By 2008 he was back where he started with the Specialized team and his results seem to get better with age. He has won nine National Championship titles across four disciplines. In 2011 he took on some endurance races and racked up wins in both the Leadville 100 and La Ruta de Los Conquistadors.

2012 might have been his best season yet with his third trip to the Olympic Games where he placed a career best 10th. He also managed to win his second PROXCT series title, second Pan American Championship title and stood on the podium at the Windham World Cup.

When Todd isn’t racing all over the world you can find him in one of three places; hanging out with his wife Meg and dog Winston, grinding it out on the golf course or hitting the dirt jump trails around Durango or his winter home of Tucson, AZ.

Achievements

2012 Marathon National Champion
2012, 2010 PROXCT National Champion
2012, 2010 Continental Champion
2012, 2010, 2001 Short Track National Champion
2012 Olympic Games 10th
2012 Windham World Cup 4th
2011 US Cyclocross National Champion
2011 La Ruta de los Conquistadores Champion
2011 Leadville Trail 100 Champion
2011 US Cross Coutry Mountain Bike National Champion
2011 Sea Otter Classic XC 1st Place
2011 World Championships 7th
2004, 2008 Olympic Games Team Member

4th of July Weekend

July 3, 2010

4th of July Weekend

Happy 4th of July to everyone, especially non-Americans. This weekend is reserved in the U.S. for lots of drinking and blowing stuff up. The cycling community in Durango also uses this weekend to ride Kennebec Pass, a 11,500 ft ish mountain right out of town. You ride about 13 miles of pavement up to a dirt road, then climb about 4,000 ft. From there you hop on the Colorado trail and descend almost all the way back to town minus a short 30 minute climb in the middle on awesome single track. Some people ride from town, some people drive to the dirt parking lot and some people drive all the way to the top. Not everyone does the ride this weekend but on a normal day you might see 3 other people and on the 4th you're likely to see close to 100. You might think it's nicer to do it when it's less crowed but I like knowing there are plenty of people around if I crash and get hurt or break my bike. Most of the ride doesn't get cell reception. We are leaving from Starbucks in town at 9am tomorrow for anyone looking to ride from town. Going at a steady clip it will probably take about 4.5 hours. There is one water stop about 1 hour in at the Kroger camp ground.

Meg and I have never ridden the train in Durango together. Meg has ridden it but I haven't This is as close I've come to riding the train.

This is me working in my new office up at Cascade. There's no cell service but there is internet so Skype is the only way to talk to people. I wear my full kit at all times while doing cycling related stuff online, it's like my business suit. Ha.

So this is the machine Crawford has been putting everyone through the paces on. He punches in the resistance and you keep the gears spinning for a certain amount of time.

And this is me doing sea level intervals at 6,500 ft in Durango. Pretty cool.

It's hard to get the same levels in the lab that you can outside at sea level but it's pretty close. It is still way more watts then you can do outside at altitude. The question is, how many times can you do intervals inside on trainer?

Meg and Winston spent the night with me at Cascade with me last night. Winston wasn't doing as bad with the altitude but he also couldn't play ball up there because it was raining when we got there so he didn't get as tired. He was drinking a bunch though last night and LOUD! I think he's the loudest drinker I've ever heard.

Today I'm doing some motor pacing and sleeping low in town so I don't have to get up to early to do the Kennebec ride. I also think I'm getting addicted to coffee because when I don't drink a latte in the morning I feel pretty tired. And I'm interested to see how the body responds to doing intervals up at almost 12,000 ft and then down at sea level. They say you have to keep the body guessing to keep it growing so that seems like it should shake it up a bit. And I feel like Ned getting ready for the Iron Horse driving up to DMR everyday.

I wonder if I'm going to go to Silverton on Sunday to watch the fireworks....

Stats for Todd Wells are coming soon.
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