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

Leadville 100

August 16, 2010

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.

Thanks for your support….

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