BEIJING — Mountain biking was invented in the United States. You could make an argument that it was perfected in Colorado. Yet on the world’s biggest stage, Colorado’s two Olympic mountain bikers looked, on Saturday anyway, very far behind the rest of the world.
Durango native Todd Wells got pulled from the race following the fifth of eight laps for getting lapped and Lakewood resident Dellys Starr, competing for Australia, finished last. Europeans swept all six medals.
“Road cycling and cycling in general have been big in Europe forever,” said Wells, in street clothes after favorite Julien Absalon of France won. “Once the Euros caught on to the mountain bike thing, you can see the results here.”
Wells should know. He finished 19th in Athens four years ago and was shooting for a top 10 finish here. He never got close. He began to fade in the first of eight 2.67-mile laps and was in 35th out of 50 at the midway point.
“This is probably one of my worst races this year,” Wells said. “Compound that with this being the Olympics and it’s the best riders in the world all trying to be their best for today. It was a tough course. It was hot. A lot of little things led to my result.”
The course conditions were more suited for guerilla training than mountain biking. It was 90 degrees with 49 percent humidity. The beautiful forested course in the southwest outskirts of Beijing featured 15 short, steep climbs of 20-30 feet, including a long switchback to the top of the hill. The steep descents weren’t nearly long enough for recovery time.
It didn’t take Wells, 32, long to know this wouldn’t be his day.
“Probably about 10 minutes into the race,” said Wells who competes in a World Cup in Canberra, Australia, next Sunday. “I’m pretty disappointed. I was hoping to have a good race and I didn’t. But I’m still pumped to be here and pumped to be part of the Olympics.”
Wells shouldn’t feel bad. The other American man, Adam Craig of Bend, Ore., didn’t finish, either.
The heat slammed the women’s race where Canada’s Marie-Helene Premont, the silver medalist in Athens, hyperventilated and didn’t finish. Neither did three others. The Netherland’s Elsbeth van Rooy almost didn’t. She collapsed at the finish and lost consciousness.
“It was probably the toughest race I’ve ever done,” said Starr, who finished 26th. “That’s saying something when you’ve been racing for 10 years.”
She stood 22nd after Lap 3 when she admitted she almost quit.
“I felt awesome in the first two laps,” she said. “I felt like I was up there with the pace. There weren’t a lot of gaps. Then on the third lap it just suddenly hit me, the heat. Then I hit Grovel Town on Lap 4.”
Starr, who finished 37th at this year’s World Championships, found the course brutally hard. In more ways than one, it’s a long ways from Chimney Gulch.
“It’s upper body fatiguing as well because you’re pulling so much,” she said. “On the two longer climbs, the heat is beating down on you and all you can pretty much think about is how hot it was.”
Starr announced she’s retiring from international mountain biking but will continue to compete domestically and will do some upcoming cyclocross races. But first, she and her husband, Ryan, will sightsee around Beijing.
And she takes away the knowledge that she finished a course many other women couldn’t.
“I didn’t know that,” she said, “so in your own little race world, you’re like, ‘I’m last! Everyone’s going faster than me!’ ”
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
