It was the stuff of legends, a classic Western confrontation: Two men in a duel in the sun.
No rifles or six-shooters involved in this 21st century clash, but riders on saddles still the same.
There was no hero in a white hat, or a bad man dressed in black. But this was a generational battle, with a wily old hand unwilling to yield to an upstart, and no quarter given to the young rider fighting not only the elder on a rocky alpine trail, but a recently dislocated shoulder to boot.
And now it is history. Durango’s Howard Grotts, 24, excelled on the uphill grades, as he is perhaps the nation’s best mountain bike climber. Fellow Durangoan Todd Wells, 41, excelled going down, as few riders in the world negotiate technical downhills like he can. On the sixth and final stage of the Breck Epic, Grotts erased a nearly three-minute deficit to Wells to take the title.
“Epic” might be an understatement. The single-track race is 240 miles long and boasts 40,000 feet of elevation gain. “Beyond epic” is more appropriate, as the race started just one day after the Leadville Trail 100, an iconic one-day mountain bike marathon above 10,000 feet that Grotts won in just under six hours and 16 minutes.
The runner up? Wells again, who like fellow Durango cycling icon Ned Overend before him, is showing no signs of slowing down in his fourth decade on two wheels. Enter legendary territory, because in winning both races, Grotts duplicated the feat Wells pulled off a year ago when he won his third Leadville 100 and followed it up with a win at Breckenridge.
Doing that at just 24? That’s remarkable. As for Wells, grab a thesaurus or go online, because we have run out of adjectives to describe his tenacity and talent. We will frame his name in cycling headlines for some time to come.
Beyond the pair, an impressive number of Durango riders are having great seasons. Next week, Grotts will be in Australia for the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships, joined by another Durango rider, Payson McElveen. A Fort Lewis College alum, McElveen joined Grotts and Wells on the podium in Leadville, and took on the Breck Epic as well.
Also headed down under are Christopher Blevins, a member of the 23-and-under American team (who has had an impressive summer on a road bike), and Katja Freeburn, named to the USA Cycling junior women’s team. Freeburn, recently of Durango High School, will race for FLC upon her return, as will Animas High grads Keiran Eagen and Camryn Sippy.
On the road, we can’t overlook Sepp Kuss, just 22, who recently placed sixth overall in the four-stage Colorado Classic just a week after a ninth overall finish in the seven-stage Tour of Utah. He finished just one minute and six seconds behind Colorado Classic winner Manuel Senni of Italy. Kuss, you will remember, left everyone else in the background scenery of Molas Pass in winning this year’s Iron Horse Classic.
From the youngsters in the DEVO program to the veterans in the professional ranks, local cyclists on dirt and on the pavement are adding to Durango’s legendary cycling reputation on almost a weekly basis. To say we are proud is yet another understatement.
Back to the thesaurus we will – gladly – have to go.
