Todd Wells

  
  


Todd Wells
Todd Wells
Birthdate: December 25, 1975
Height: 6'2"/1.9 meters
Weight: 175 lbs./79kg./12.5 st.
Birthplace: Kingston, New York
Hometown: Kingston, New York
Residence: Durango, Colorado
Pro Team/Sponsors: Specialized, Clif Bar, Oakley
Education: B.S. Management Information Systems, University of Arizona
Website/Blog: www.toddwells.com
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Olympic/World Championship experience:
  • 43rd place — 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing, China — cross-country
  • 19th place — 2004 Olympic Games, Athens, Greece — cross-country
  • 7th place — 2011 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships, Champéry, Switzerland — cross-country
  • 13-time world championship team member

National Championship Experience:

  • 1st place — 2013 USA Cycling Cross-Country Mountain Bike National Championships, Macungie, Pa. - Short Track Cross-Country
  • 2nd place — 2013 USA Cycling Cross-Country Mountain Bike National Championships, Macungie, Pa. - Cross-Country
  • 1st place — 2011 USA Cycling Mountain Bike Cross-Country National Championships, Sun Valley, Idaho — cross-country
  • 1st place - 2010 USA Cycling Mountain Bike Cross Country National Championships, Granby, Colo. — cross-country
  • Two-time USA Cycling Cyclo-cross National Champion (2001, 2005, 2010)

Career Highlights

  • 4th place - 2012 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup, Windham, N.Y. - cross country
  • 1st place — 2011 Sea Otter Classic, Monterey, California — cross-country
  • 1st place — 2010 USA Cycling Pro Cross-Country Tour (Pro XCT)  - series overall
  • 1st place — 2009 Sea Otter Classic Omnium, Monterey, California — overall
  • 22nd place — 2012 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup, Mont Saint-Anne, Quebec, Canada — cross-country
  • 50th place — 2012 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup, La Bresse, France — cross-country
  • 32nd place — 2012 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup, Nove Mesto Na Morave, Czech Republic — cross-country
  • 45th place — 2012 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup, Houffalize, Belgium — cross-country
  • 1st place - 2010 Pan American Mountain Bike Championships - cross-country

Point of Interest

  • On the same day Todd won his second career elite cyclo-cross national title in 2005, his younger brother, Troy, won the national U23 title.
  • In 2010, Todd became the first person to win professional national titles in cross-country mountain bike, short track cross-country mountain bike and cyclo-cross in the same year.
  • Todd loves golf and plays every day that he can.

Personal

After collecting his high school diploma from Kingston High School in Kingston, N.Y., in 1994, Todd Wells headed west to Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo., site of the first world championships of mountain biking in 1990. The course tape and racing trusses of that historically significant event are long gone but the culture stayed and thrives even now. Wells started racing in the fall of his freshman year at Fort Lewis College and, as it turned out, he was pretty good. He won the collegiate national title for cross-country both in 1995 and 1996, and was invited to join the Specialized Mountain Dew team, where he captured the semi-pro series title for the inaugural National Off-Road Bicycle Association racing series. Mountain bike racing had him hooked and he left Fort Lewis College and turned pro in 1997. For the next two seasons, he raced the NORBA series, the U23 World Championships, and the North American World Cup races until 1998, when he exited the sport to resume his studies, this time at the University of Arizona.
 

Upon completing his degree in Management Information Systems, in his own words he "got a real job" with IBM but then quickly realized that racing bikes - while perhaps less lucrative - was more fun so he hung up the suit and tie and put his tires to the dirt once more and rode off in the direction of a fulfilling career as a top-tier mountain bike pro.
 
He has proven no less of a threat in cyclo-cross, where he holds two national champion titles and numerous wins on the North American cyclo-cross circuit. He has twice represented the United States at the Olympics in Athens and Beijing and will don red, white and blue in London at the 2012 Olympic Games.
 
"I have been to the World Championships many times but nothing compares to the Olympics," said Wells. "The Olympic experience is amazing because you are surrounded by so many incredible athletes. It is very humbling to be part of the greatest global sporting event. Being in the athlete village you can hear just about every language in existence being spoken at all times. It really is awesome to be part of such an event."
 
Wells resides in Durango with his wife and biggest supporter, Meg, who rivals her husband's athletic prowess in her own right as a long-distance runner.