There is no slowing Durango’s best mountain bike riders, especially not at the Mountain Bike Nationals in Bear Creek Resort, Pennsylvania.
Continuing his dominant summer, Durango’s Todd Wells claimed first place and the winner’s stars and stripes jersey Saturday in the USA Cycling Cross-Country Mountain Bike National Championships, finishing the race in 1 hour, 45 minutes, 27 seconds. It was the third national title for Wells in the event, with the others coming in 2010 and 2011. In 2013, Wells claimed first place in the short track cross-country national championship race.
“I always target these events. I’ve been to 20 cross-country national championships, and this is the third one I’ve won, so it seems like once every six or seven years I win one of these things,” Wells told USA Cycling after the race. “I have gotten some other titles – marathon, short track, cyclo-cross – it’s also an honor to win those jerseys, but this is the one I always want to get, so to get it this year is awesome.”
Saturday’s win was the fifth of the summer for Wells at a national series event. He won the Pro XCT series race in Portage, Wisconsin on July 12. He also won the U.S. marathon mountain bike race July 5 in Sun Valley, Idaho as well as a cross-country race in Colorado Springs on June 28. He also claimed a win in a short track event June 20 in Missoula, Montana.
Also earning a national title Friday was Durango’s Christopher Blevins, who finished first in the Junior 15-16 category of the cross-country race. He finished in 1:20:02. That national title came two weeks after Blevins was crowned the king of both the criterium and road race at the USA Cycling Amateur Road National Championships on July 2-6 in Madison, Wisconsin.
“I’m just having fun on my bike, to be honest,” Blevins said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “I’m not really at a point where I want to focus on one bike. I’m doing my best to keep a variety of both the road and mountain bike and do the best I can at both. Being able to do both of them and win championships this month has been great.”
Blevins, son of Field and Priscilla Blevins, was trailed by another Durango DEVO rider, Keiran Eagen, who finished 22nd in 1:33:40.
“It was a really rocky course, and not something we see in Durango or anywhere else I’ve raced,” Blevins said of the course. “A lot of my thought was on being safe and making sure I wouldn’t flat. Unfortunately, I did flat. At that point, I already had a pretty big gap on the second lap. I rode the wheel down and wrecked it pretty badly just drifting. I made a wheel change in the pit, kept my gap and finished with the lead.”
Blevins’ sister, Kaylee, also had a big weekend. She took third place in the women’s Under-23 cross-country race in 1:34:20, finishing just 3 minutes, 7 seconds behind national champion Kate Courtney of Kentfield, California.
“Stoked with a 3rd place in U23 at #MTBNats Definitely a tough race, but happy it turned out well,” Kaylee Blevins wrote on Twitter following the podium finish.
The men’s Under-23 cross-country race was loaded with Durango talent. Howard Grotts placed second behind Park City, Utah’s Keegan Swenson, who trains in Durango. Swenson finished in 1:29:30 – 16 seconds ahead of Grotts.
“It was a battle out there today, back and forth with (Keegan Swenson), but I was 2nd in the end. Flawless gear and support,” Grotts, a Specialized team rider, wrote on Twitter after the race.
Durango’s Sepp Kuss finished third in the race behind Swenson and Grotts, and 2015 Fort Lewis College commit Casey Williams of Big Bear, California was fourth. He finished ahead of current FLC cyclists Ryan Standish and Payson McElveen, who finished fifth and sixth, respectively.
“It was really astounding the way Durango born and bred kids, FLC kids, soon to be FLC kids and kids than train in (Durango) did in (Pennsylvania),” FLC cycling director Dave Hagen said in an email to The Durango Herald.
Also finishing the men’s Under-23 cross-country race were Durango native and FLC rider Stephan Davoust (11th), FLC rider Michael Sampson (14th), Durango native and FLC rider Levi Kurlander (21st), FLC commit Matthew Turner (22nd) and current FLC cyclists Mason Shea and Andris Delins, who finished 27th and 31st, respectively.
Todd Wells’ younger brother Troy, who won the 2014 Iron Horse Bicycle Classic road race, finished 19th in the pro men’s cross country race. He crossed the finish line in 1:59:40.
Durango’s Ryan Hentz finished 28th Saturday in the Men’s Master 30-34 cross-country race. He clocked in at 2:11:25. Andrew Freye of Allentown, Pennsylvania won that division in 1:38:49.
Quinn Simmons of Durango DEVO was 14th in the Junior Men’s 13-14 category in cross-country at 0:49:54, 4 minutes, 5 seconds behind winner Michael Mace of Ocala, Florida. His DEVO teammate Lucas Robbins took ninth in the Junior 15-18 cross-country race in 1:23:43.
Also finishing the women’s Under-23 cross-country race behind Kaylee Blevins was Durango’s Emily Schaldach (9th), FLC alumna Nathalie Krantz (11th) and FLC commit Caroline Woods (13th).
Madeline Robibins of Durango DEVO was sixth in the Junior 9-16 category in short-track cross country in 0:15:38. She was 2 minutes, 3 seconds behind first place Katie Clouse of Park City, Utah. Robbins also went on to finish ninth in Friday’s Junior 13-14 cross country race in 0:47:10.
The weekend of racing will conclude Sunday with the Super D, a mixture of cross-country and downhill riding, and the short track cross-country races. Wells will race in the short track event, and Christopher Blevins will do both short track and Super D.
“The thing is, whenever I have a good race there’s always another race the next day. I still have short track, so I can’t celebrate too much,” Wells said.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
