Troy Wells

Long Days in the high country

// September 3rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

So I’ve been spending some serious time up above 10000 feet. In the past week I have covered the entire CO trail from moles to town. In that time I would say I’ve had to big days that i will remember for a while. First off last saturday I ventured out with the german for what was suppose to be a long day on the bikes. Before we knew it we lost the trail and ended up hiking for a solid hour and half. We had out the topo map along with the After we finally climbed up out of the cascade creek covering 600 vertical feet in less than 20 minutes we found the colorado trail. After that it was smooth sailing to blackhawk and down hotel draw back to the car at DMR. Here are a couple photos from the day.

German breaking the CO trail sign.

German descending off of blackhawk

This morning I hit up the CO trail from the top of hotel draw to town. This ended up calling for a early morning with all the thunder storms that have been rolling in to town in the afternoon. Snyder, TT and I had a 6 a.m. departure out of durango. We dialed the ride in 5 hours. The trail has about 20 minutes of hike a bike in the middle but besides from that it is sick. You are rolling around @ about 12000 feet for 40 minutes. It is a good amount of rolling single track for about the first hour before you begin climbing. So here some photos of snyder and TT kicking it @ 12000.

Rest

// August 17th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

On the way back to d-town. So after mt. Snow I decided my season was over. I need to give my thumb some time to heal. I’ve become quite the spectator over the last couple of races. During the xc in windham I was running up a good portion of the climb each lap. It is always hard to watch the races but I think it is easier later in the year with cross right around the corner.

This morning in the airport half of the xc riders seemed to be on our flight from Albany to chi town. It is always a fun time flying with a cast of charaters. We even saw jpows on his way back from crit natz. Todd meg willow and I are all schedule to make it back to dtown around 4. It is always a big question mark when flying in and out of chi town.

So hopefully we will make it back home today. I’m looking forward to my second off week before it is time to start training for cross season. I think I’ve got my schedule figured out. Here is a rough draft of it.

Star cross
Vegas
usgp 1-2
Cincinnati
usgp 3-4
boulder
usgp 5-6
jingle cross
usgp 7-8
natz
then Europe

Mt. Snow

// August 11th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

I’ve been doing a lot of spectating as of late.  I watched the XC from the feed zone helping out Todd.  We had quite a crew in the upper feed zone between Meg, Roark, and Gully.  We cheered for everyone that we knew and for some we didn’t know.  Gully was up in the zone with bottles and wheels but he didn’t even offer the bottles to any of his riders.I guess he is  adopting the chinese  women’s coaching techniques.  Roark will cheer for anyone on a 29ner or as he likes to call them big wheels.  

On sunday i suited up and gave the STXC a shot. I almost took a digger warming up which took a little of my confidence away. Needless to say i didn’t quite have the legs to put together a good short track. After the sub par showing i decided it would be best to begin my break before cross. So i’ve got a week off back in NY before heading back to D-town.

Yesterday Todd, my dad, and I headed up to phoenicia n to hit up the Esopus on the tubes. We got some river rat 1 tubes from herzogs on sale. In durango the river rat tubes are sold out in april it seems. The hardest part of the tubing session was blowing them up. Nothing like getting light headed from being oxygen deprived. We did see a group of kids pop a tube from the town tinker tube rental. He was a long way from the get out point. That makes for a rough day on the Esopus.

Quick Update

// August 7th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

I will be doing some live updates on my twitter from tomorrow mt snow USCUP around 2 p.m. eastern.  I will be racing on sunday so no live updates from the short track.  

Funny video from bromont b-fest table.

Cycling Videos on CyclingDirt

Mt. Sainte Anne

// July 27th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized

So I spaced on updating after nationals.  I ended up coming away from sol vista with a broken thumb 13th in the XC and 11th in the STXC.  Their is something about racing around @ 8500 that my body just doesn’t seem to like.  After leaving granby it was back home to d-town for a couple days to get my thumb checked out and pack for the 4 weeks of humidity  and rain on the east coast.  

Mt. Sainte Anne was just as i remember it cloudy, rainy and cold.  Lets just say if you didn’t pack a hoodie you weren’t spending to much time outside the hotel room.  A major change from floating down the animas in d-town with a beer on wednesday.  The course was the tradition very demanding mt. sainte anne world cup.  Not a single flat section of trail all day.  You are either going straight up or down the mountain with technical roots and rocks the entire time.  It also rained a lot over the course of the weekend but the sand based dirt seems to hold water reasonably well.  

With my thumb a major question mark for me I was unsure how the race would go.  I’ve got a sweet removable cast that i’m rocking for the next 6 weeks along with a plastic split to ride in.  Lets just say the most technical race all year isn’t the best for nursing a broken thumb through.  The downhills didn’t bring my day to an end early.  But all the pulling on the bars on the steep technical climbs made me call it a day a lap and half into the race.   I figured it would be better to give the thumb a rest and give it another go in bromont.  

After the race Snyder, Colt from cyclingdirt, and I packed Colts dodge durango to the rim and headed back to the U.S.A.  I’m staying with Nate Dogg and Snyder in Stowe VT.  This is my first time to Stowe and my first impression im stoked.  It is sunny and 80 outside which really beats the weather Todd is dealing with in Mt. Saint Anne right now.  It also has a small mountain town feel to it as well can’t beat that.

The last 3 weeks

// July 13th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized

I’ve actually been in Durango for close to 3 weeks. In that time I’ve gotten in a lot of good training. Trying to get it all together for NATZ this coming weekend in Granby. Also a lot of tubbing sessions and golf has been taking place.  Yesterday did a crit in longmont for some high end prep before natz.  The race was a good one with the U-23 garmin and livestrong teams well represented a long with 100 other strong riders.  I felt good but wasnt exactly killing it.  Now we are in vail until thursday morning staying at megs parents house.  Currently waiting for the rain to blow over so we can get out for an easy spin.  Hoping to see bruno tonight.  If it is as good as the hangover i will be stoked. 

This guy has also been in D-town training for a stage race in China.

I’ve been getting my back cracked quite a bit by Dr. Frank. He looks like he should be @ a beach party in the hamptons.

Barthel has taken up golf. He is hooked he has been hitting the driving range @ least once a day for the last 3 weeks.

With DJpows spending the last couple weeks in d-town. Winston has decided that his new career is on the technics.

We are traveling light up to NATZ. Good thing Todd got the Tundra

One of the epic rides that Todd and I hit up during our big week of training.

D-town

// June 24th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

After a week on the east coast it feels so great to be back home. I think my body has finally dried out after 7 days of rain. D-town is so nice right now. Nothing like getting off the plane on monday with not a cloud in the sky and the temp in the mid 80’s. Since I’m on a little rest week I’ve been trying to log in some hours at the river. Monday Snyder and I hit up the bike path bridge for some ghetto bridge jumping. Then at burger night we were all blessed by DJ JPOWS who is in town for a couple of weeks. He had some good stories that kept us all rolling for the entire dinner. I went out a little too big at pint night and was suffering most of yesterday.

I got myself out on the bike with TT. TT got a new sweet Giant mtb bike quite an upgrade from his old machine. On our ride we ran into Mike Wilk A.K.A Squawk king. He has been out of the loop though so he didn’t really have much of anything for me on that front. He has turned more into a trial builder as of late. His second trial is just about finished he just needs to do some final touches on a couple parts. The trial name is skullrock and you can get on to it by taking a left turn off of sidewider 3/4 of the way down. Well i guess I’m off to meet up with tiger todd for a round of golf then hopefully hit up the river with the tube today. Man that is going to be cold.

Giro Di Jersey Recap

// June 21st, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized

Wicks Interview

// June 16th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Wicks has had the best interview yet. He is cocky about his mix tape.

Dirty Jersey

// June 15th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized

The 4th MTB-USCUP took place this past weekend in CO springs. Todd took a W in the short track i ended up 8th. I blew up in the STXC fo sho! In the XC i took it mellow from the start and ended up 14th. The double tree was the host hotel and it seemed as if everyone got the memo except for sager who decided it would be nice to stay close to air force.

During our time in the springs we came across this awesome skate park with millions of little tikes looking to be the next hawk.

The German had a rough weekend tossing himself on the ground thursday pre riding.

 I got a sweet new scooter Zuma 125!! 

 Frank the tank is back training and planning an assault on natz..

Todd and I are back in NY hanging out at our parents house. We are heading down Giro Di Jersey for some power training. Basically we just wanted to kick it in Jersey for five days. Our training ride today was wet to say the least. Nothing like 3.5 hrs in the rain.