Aquarius Marine Criterium - April 30th
Twenty-four riders took the field last night. There was a huge turnout from up-island, with the Riverway Dental contingent out of Courtenay, along with two riders from Campbell River. Two riders from Cycle Therapy in Duncan topped off the out-of-towners to have the locals outnumbered.
Janna suffered a mechanical on the first lap and unfortunately had to sit out her first MIVA crit of the season.
After the first two laps the pace picked up sharply with an attack from the Riverway squad stringing the pack out on lap four, which is where we saw the first rider get dropped. Several laps later the pack regrouped and stayed together for the most part. Halfway through the race the pace started to break apart as one by one several riders fell off the back in response to attacks from the front. With 5 laps to go Gary Macgregor from Riverway went off the front and looked to be able to hold pack off. However, somewhere on the backside of the third to last lap the bunch caught Gary and much to our confusion at the finish line Eric Rush also in Riverway kit attacked and went off the front. Eric managed to hold the pack off and soloed the last two laps to victory, with Iain Hay out-sprinting Nathan Walsh for second place.
Many thanks to the volunteers:
Brad Temple
Larry Dicker
Mary-Jo Mace
Liz Halloran
John Kinos
Glen Gordon
Video courtesy Glen Gordon