Fighting smoldering heat, Durango local Todd Wells defended his national title from 2015 by winning the 2016 USA Cycling Marathon Bike National Championships Saturday at Columbia County, Georgia.
Wells, who rides for SRAM-Troy Lee Designs, finished the 60-mile race in 4 hours, 8 minutes, 52.8 seconds in the pro men’s category. This is his fourth win in a row at this event. Last year, his winning time was 4:05:8.78.
Rose Grant of Columbia Falls, Montana won the women’s event with a time of 4:51:31.
Wells entered the event as hot as the Georgia sun, coming off a first-place performance in the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic’s MBS Cross Country Mountain Bike Race and a win the week before at the Epic Rides Grand Junction Off-Road 40-mile mountain bike race.
“It’s one of those things that I got off to a good start, and had good momentum this season.” said Wells in phone interview with The Durango Herald. “It seems like things kind of steamroll when things are good. It’s kind of like riding a wave, when it’s bad it’s tough to turn around. With new team sponsors, it’s been great riding that wave all year. It’s been better than I could have hoped. If it ends tomorrow it’s been a great success.”
The course may not have changed much, but the temperatures were much more brutal than last year. At the height of the race, temperatures got to 100 degrees.
The course was designed with two large 30-mile loops that intersected each other making a giant figure-8.
“My brother and I were in front quite a bit,” said Wells. “On the second of the 30 mile loops, I got a gap early on and rode by myself for the rest of the day. I rode probably about 25 miles by myself.”
Also finishing in the top-10 was Durango rider Troy Wells, who rides for Team Clif Bar Cycling. He took sixth place with a time of 4:26:17. Following Troy Wells was Fort Lewis College rider Payson McElveen who finished seventh with a time of 4:27:52.1. McElveen, who rides for USA U23, is also coming off a great IHBC weekend by winning the Coca Cola Road Race in 2:30:7.5.
“Last year the Marathon Nationals was the hardest race I’d ever done,” said McElveen on his Facebook page. “This year was harder. It was 95 degrees plus Georgia humidity plus some wicked fast dudes made for the most epic day of suffering on a bike I’ve ever had.”
Up next for these mountain bike riders is the GoPro Games in Vail from June 9-12.
“My clothes will finally dry out by the time we get back to Colorado, and it’ll be nice to be back,” said Wells.
heraldsports@durangoherald.com
