Wells wins Subaru Cup short track

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Todd Wells (Specialized) won the short track at the Subaru Cup in Mount Morris, Wisconsin, on Sunday afternoon. The US national short track champion finished ahead of his fellow breakaway companion Raphael Gagne (Equipe du Quebec/Rocky Mountain) after outsprinting him to the finish. Ryan Woodall (MTFmx.com/Top Gear) was third.

Wells' teammate Howard Grotts was fourth, ahead of the previous day's cross country winner Derek Zandstra (Scott-3Rox) in fifth.

A crash just off the start line made things more chaotic than usual early in the race. Russell Finsterwald and Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (both Subaru-Trek) were among those who went down. Grotts was held up, but did not crash.

Wells was unaffected by the crash by virtue of being in front of it. "The race started fast. Raphael Gagne and I got off, and we rode together most of the race," said Wells.

"I did most of the work. He came around with one lap to go. I was able to just barely get by him at top of the last climb and was just barely able to outsprint him."

Wells said he was feeling fatigued after the Olympics and the previous day's Pro XCT final cross country race. "I would have preferred to have won the cross country, but second was good enough to take the title," he said.

Behind Wells and Gagne, the race was for third place with Grotts and Woodall.  "About halfway through it was Ryan Woodall and me in third and fourth place," said Grotts. "It stayed like that until the end, and Ryan threw down a little attack on the penultimate lap. He was able to keep it for that finish lap."

Zandstra rolled in a little later on his own for the final podium spot of fifth.

The racers seemed to love the atmosphere and the courses all weekend at the Subaru Cup. Wells said, "The Wisconsin course is a great all around mountain bike course. It's dense forest with some fun singletrack and short punchy climbs. I feel all the riders think that's one of the best Pro XCT venues."

Racer enjoyed good weather conditions on Sunday, with temperatures kept cool by some cloud cover. The course was pretty dry and loose with some sandy spots.

Wells is among several of the racers at the Subaru Cup this weekend who will head next to the mountain bike world championships in Austria in mid-September.

Olympian Sam Schultz (Subaru-Trek) did not compete in the short track due to illness. He sat out to speed his recovery in the lead-up to Worlds in September.

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