MFG 6 - Woodland Park

It's been way too long since there has been a race in Woodland Park. It is always the biggest race of the year due to it's location in the city and has a huge field because of the massive turnout and some big crowds cheering. Because it's so big it can set a high expectation for a good result in the race since it's maybe one of the few races friends and family will see you race and your going against the largest field of the year.

I have raced past years in Woodland Park but it has been a long time since I raced single speed for it. Woodland Park also is where I have done all my cross practicing this year which was rather light but maybe something I can add to the to do list for next year. I went looking in the old galleries on Woodinville Cycles SmugMug and found some photos from a muddy race back in 2016. It always nice to bike to races and since Woodland is close to where I live, it makes to even easier to get over there.

It was very dry and cold the week leading up to the race so the course conditions were very quick. The course was also modified a bit from previous iterations that made it every quicker. I had a good start at finished the first lap in 20th place.

I remember losing some spots as some faster guys that didn't start well eventually passed in in the first couple of laps. There was even one guy that yelled he was coming in hot in the past Hodala corner and bumped shoulders with on the inside. The corners were fast and most could be ridden with a lot of speed.

The laps flowed by without any big mistakes. Line selection was good but probably could have been better. There was a loose gravel corner in the first half of the course that was hard to carry speed on and the bike wanted to slide on.

There were a few crashes in this section. I had one issue on the barriers I think on the final lap. The area to dismount was quite deep and loose and just dismount and ended a little off balance but was able to save myself from taking a spill.

In the later laps, traffic became a bigger issue than it usually was due to the bigger field. It wasn't that bad but maybe burned a few matches making passes getting through it all.

My friend Chris passed me about midway on the last lap and I did everything I could to stay close to him so I could maybe have a chance to pass on the final sprint.

I had a little bad luck and had a tandem get in the way on the last couple of corners that took me a little while to get by and another single speed racer pipped me at the line that I didn't see and lost another place.

Overall, with the field as large as it was I was happy with the result and felt that my effort expended on this race was probably my greatest all cx season. The course didn't have anything really twisty so it was just full gas pretty much the entire time and then you add the short kicker gravel climbs and it just gets even harder.

What Went Well

1. Burned a lot of matches throughout the race without ever fading out at all. Last lap was one of my quickest all race.
2. Kept heart rate high and elevated.
3. Overall result was good and lots of racers within 30 secs to 1 min.
4. Gear ratio (36x17) was pretty perfect for the course. The only area where I had to grind the reps out was the gravel climb and thats the same for pretty much everyone else.
5. Equipment was dialed and tire pressure was comfortable at around 22 psi.

Needs Improvement

1. Shoulder was still banged up so still riding cautiously to avoid another crash.
2. More VO2 and anaerobic watts to throw down through out the race
3. Improved biking handling and maybe using leg dabbing some to have a failsafe I really loose corners.
4. Be more aware at finish line to not loose places without putting up a fight. I have been pipped at the line 2-3 times in the past year when I probably could win the sprint. So maybe now I will also sprint finishes hard even if no one is around to avoid this.