Make it a six pack of victories for Todd Wells this summer.
Durango's three-time Olympian has mastered everything from long 100-mile races to short cross-country races this summer, earning a third national championship at the cross-country nationals before backing it up with a first-place finish Saturday at the Leadville 100, one of the most famous mountain bike races in the country.
“The preparation and training for an hour and a half cross country race at sea level is so different than the six-plus hour race at 10,000 feet,” Wells said Monday in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “It is like two completely different sports, and I am super happy to win the Leadville 100.
“That race is probably one of the biggest, if not the biggest, and most well known races in America for mountain biking. It's huge.”
It was Well's second Leadville 100 win, putting him an elite company as a multiple time champion. David Wiens holds the record with six wins. The only other racers to win twice are Richard Feldman, Alban Lakata, Bryson Perry and Mike Volk. Lance Armstrong won the race in 2009, one year before Levi Leipheimer finished first. Wells also won the race in 2011.
Wells, 38, edged Specialized teammate Christoph Sauser by 17 seconds when he finished in 6 hours, 16 minutes, 27 seconds. Wells' time was the second fastest time ever on the course. Lakata owns the record at 6:04:01.
Racers set out from Leadville at 6 a.m. and endured multiple climbs and descents across a rocky trail.
Recent rain in the area made the typically sandy course more packed down, but Wells said the heavy snowfall in the area led to more rocks than ever before.
“With the snowmelt and some slides, sections of the course that generally have a few rocks had a ton of rocks and a lot more exposed, rough areas,” he said.
Wells, who spent two weeks training for the race in Breckenridge, said he never was confident in the first-place finish until he actually crossed the line. He and Sauser were in front of the pack along with Lakata, the defending champion, and his teammate Kristian Hynek.
Wells was one of six racers in the front of the group after the first climb, and the lead pack was down to four when they raced up the front side of Powerline just 15 miles into the race.
“My teammate flatted right there, so then there was only three of us heading out to Columbine at mile 20,” Wells said. “At mile 25, Alban flatted, so it was just Kristian and me. We rode together halfway up Columbine, but I couldn't hold his pace. At the turnaround, he had a 1 minute, 45 second gap on me. But, on the way to the decisive Powerline climb, he had a 3 minute, 45 second gap, and I knew (Sauser) and Alban weren't too far behind me.”
Riders faced a big head wind coming back toward town, and Wells found himself riding alone for a long stretch.
“That part of the race was very hard mentally for me. But, I got over the Powerline climb well, and last year that's where I had blown it,” he said. “All of a sudden, I could see Hynek, and he had blown up so bad he could hardly ride in a straight line with one climb to go.”
The final few miles of the race presented a false flat dirt road with a steady uphill grade.
“I knew Hynek couldn't catch me because he was cooked. A mile and a half from the finish I saw Christoph (Sauser) was closing fast. I had been giving it everything, but when I saw him coming I had to up it a bit more,” Wells said. “I knew I could beat him in a sprint, but I had to give everything on the uphill roller to beat him.”
Wells hopes to keep it rolling when he heads to France next week and the world championships in Norway the first week of September.
“It's funny, when things are going well, they seem to just keep going, and when things are going poorly, no matter what you do, you can't get out of the rut,” Wells said. “I'm enjoying the good fitness and good luck I've had.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
