Woodland Park MFG # 6
Cody Cupp
11-13-11

    




I finally won!  I have been working all season to get a win in a big cross race and I choose the perfect one to finally do it. Until now I always seemed to have something go wrong every race and keep me out of that top spot, but in Woodland Park things just seemed to go my way. I knew it was going to be a good day as soon as I got there. There was a huge crowd and tons of people with very few parking spaces near there course but we lucked out and managed to get one of the closest spots there. I would also like to give a big thank you to Blue Star Coffee! They got my entry fees taken care of and that has been great. As I registered, changed into skin suit and prepared to warm up, I felt great. I was super confident and just knew that it was going to be my day. 

    The course was definitely the best MFG course of the year. All of the turns were super slick and fun and the straights were really fast and gave you a chance to really put a hard effort in and make yourself hurt. There was also a well placed set of barriers and a stair run up that led to a sometimes rideable run up with a log at the top to bunny hop. The course was pretty much perfect for me. The technical turns gave me a chance to put my mountain skills to the test and the numerous climbs gave me a chance to really put my legs to work.
    To start the race, I shot out to the front and managed to get a big lead quickly. I kept my big gap for almost two laps out and set what I thought was a pretty hard pace. I had a group of seven chasing me but three of them eventually broke off and caught me. We quickly dropped one of them and with about three laps left in the race I, along with guy who came in second, started to pull away from the one left in my group. Once we got a ways away from him I, of course, messed up trying to bunny hop the log on the run up, tripped while trying to recover myself, lost a lot of time, and ended up back with the guy we had just dropped. I had to spend the last two and a half laps trying to catch back on to the leader and just worked myself over in the process. For a while I didn’t think I even had a chance of getting him but as we came in closer to starting on the last lap he was getting closer and closer. I finally caught back onto him right after we started into the last lap and about a third of the way in I skipped around him on the barrier set then pulled away on the run up and just kept sprinting out of every corner and up every hill until I finally, victoriously, crossed the finish line. 

Cascade Cross Series
Cross Border Clash
Noember 5th


Cody Cupp

The third Cascade Cross series race course was so awesome! We raced through an industrial park in near Ferndale. There were two sand stretches on the course, a sometimes ride-able run-up, a technical single-track section through the woods, and a sweet pump track. The rest of the course consisted of fast grass straights with perfectly set up corners that you could really hit hard.
    
I raced in the top category for the first time in this race and definitely got worked pretty hard.  Right out of the start I got a bunch of grass jammed up in my cassette so I spent a good part of the first lap with my chain skipping around and popping all over the place. I lost a little time from this, but the grass eventually worked its way down deeper into the cassette so I was soon able to pedal hard again without worrying about the chain skipping through its gears. For the most part the pace of the first lap was surprisingly easy, but somehow by the time we came around for the second lap, everyone was going crazy fast and the top three guys pulled way ahead of everyone else.   
    
I ended up in the second group back and for a while we had three or four guys with us.  After a little bit they dropped off and one other racer and I got a pretty decent gap on everyone else. I sat behind the guy in front of me for a couple laps then moved out ahead of him to pull for a little while, thinking he would stay on me, but a gap quickly grew between us so I ended up spending a couple laps just trying to keep the gap in between us and stay out ahead of everyone. With a lap and a half to go someone who was in one of the further back groups made his way up to me and skipped out ahead. We both attacked hard on the last lap and I came into the final corner right on his wheel but wasn’t able to beat him on the sprint. I was still pretty satisfied with 4th place though considering that it was my first with the fastest guys. 

Magnuson Park Cross Race
Oct 29th


Julie Grialou


I participated in my second cross race this past weekend.  The race was held at Magnuson Park.  For this race, I brought my nine-year old son, Travis.  He planned on doing the juniors’ race, which started immediately after mine.  For me, the race was “interesting”, fun, and a learning experience.   Things started out with a collision during the warm-up.  I was heading down a grassy slope and this guy rode out from behind some bushes at a 90 degree angle to me.  We collided, with his helmet hitting my cheekbone pretty hard, and both of us skidding a bit on the pavement.  Although we were both shaken up, neither of us was really hurt.  My handlebars and brake lever were crooked, so I got a tool and straightened those out, then headed to the start line.


As far as the race goes, my favorite parts were where you needed to carefully pick your line.  For instance, deciding whether to hug the narrow strip of concrete next to the tennis court fence, or take a wider turn into the mud.  I was feeling good and was riding with another rider and was about 10 to 30 seconds behind the front group of 4.  We were supposed to do 6 laps.  Towards the end of lap 5, the woman I was riding with was beginning to tire.  My plan was to pass her at the beginning of the 6th lap, then see how I could do with trying to catch the front group of 4.  As we were about to cross the lap line at the end of the 5th lap, these three guys sprinted past us, and then slowed down.  I thought it was strange, but didn’t really know what to make of it.  Then, the woman I was riding with said, “We got lapped”, and we had to stop our race.  I didn’t realize that getting lapped by men who started several minutes before my group would matter.  I thought you just couldn’t get lapped by people in your own category.  So, it was a real learning lesson for me, and also disappointing and an anti-climatic finish.

As far as my son, Travis, he had a fun time in his race and says he wants to do it again.  He was one of only a few kids who didn’t have a cross bike and didn’t have a team jersey.  When I asked him if he cared about that, his response was, “Nah, it didn’t matter.  Those kids are just fancy.”

Cody Cupp

The fifth MFG cross course of the year turned out to be a blazingly fast, slippery, and fun course. The corners they set up had awesome flow to them and there were quite a few smooth straight sections that you could just open up and fly on.

At the start I did a very poor job of selecting a gear and I ended up dropping my chain right out of the gate and got a terrible start. I got pushed to the back but luckily the leaders weren’t pushing the pace very hard and I was able to climb back up to the front in about half a lap. Right when I hit the front I jumped out to the lead and put a small attack on to push the pace and spread the race out a little bit. We soon came to the muddy section of the course and the pack was instantly pulled apart. I ended up taking a really bad line so I came out of the mud and onto the road in the pack that was second from the front.

There was no way I was just going to sit in that pack and let myself take eighth or ninth so I spent two to three laps pushing forward by myself trying to bridge back up to the front. Once I finally caught back on I just sat on their wheels and drafted on all the fast sections for a while. By the time I had recovered we were onto the second to last lap. I slowly made my way up to the front and just before we came around for the last lap that guy that ended up winning and I broke away jumping out to a big lead.  We worked together to increase our lead for most of the last lap but I slipped out around a turn and lost a few seconds on him towards the end. I made a frantic effort to catch back up and try to beat him in the sprint but I just couldn’t do it so I ended up taking second for cat 3 men. Overall I had a pretty good race though, and felt good so I’m pretty satisfied with my result.