#WTFCW (WTF Crush Wednesday): Heidi Goodson

Competitive cycling wouldn’t be nearly as fun (read: fun/hard) if it weren’t for all the rad ladies we get to race with. From road to track, to cyclocross women from all different teams are there to challenge us, encourage us, and make the cycling community what it is. Our #WTFCW (Women, Trans, Femme Crush Wednesday) series will highlight the riders who make our lady cycling hearts skip a beat.

Rider: Heidi Goodson

Heidi currently rides for Birchwood Cycling, and races road (cat 2), track (cat 2), and cyclocross (cat 3) when she’s not working towards her PhD in Math.

When and how did you get into bike racing?

I got a KHS Flite 100 in 2005 ( I named it Roxanne) and raced my first alleycat in NYC in 2006. I DNFed because I missed a checkpoint. Never again! I won the Halloween alleycat and Cranksgiving that year. In 2007 I won Monstertrack and Rumble Thru the Bronx. I stopped racing alleycats and now just race my purple steel Watanabe track bike on as many velodromes as I can get to.

In early 2007 I was working at a bike shop and decided to buy a road bike. It’s the same road bike that I race on now, albeit with newer components. I’ve ridden and raced that bike all over the country. I won the first crit I ever did on it in 2007 and the last crit I did in 2015. It’s perfect. Some dude recently said to me “don’t you think it’s time for a new bike?” I was all “whatever dude, this bike wins races.”

What’s your current favorite discipline and why?
Crits and track! I like to go fast. Plus I’m in grad school and I don’t have time to train for longer road races.

Best race memory?
This past summer I soloed away from a really strong field at Southside Sprint with 7-to-go. I still can’t believe I did that and won and that it was the State Championship. It was just one of those days when everything on me and my bike was working like a perfect machine.

Toughest race you’ve ever done?

The Points Race at Track National Championships this past year. It was 100 laps, which is 70 laps more than the Points Races at home. With 8-to-go, there was a massive attack. MASSIVE. I managed to work my way onto the back of the lead group and hang on until the end. Doing that and staying there was so hard that I cried during the race. I could barely walk afterward. WORTH IT.

Describe your relationship with cycling in 3 words.
Love my bikes.

Go wicked fast.