INDUSTRIAL PLASTICS AND PAINT CRITERIUM 150630
MIVA 41.4KM CRITERIUM 150630Only eleven starters on a hot, windy evening, with two of the starters showing for the first time this season and two more participating for the first time ever. The scheduled race was to have been a points criterium but we decided to make it a straight race with no sprints to give the newbies a chance to settle in.
Within a couple of laps, Angelina Landry, who runs MIVA Wednesday evening group rides, was having difficulty accel -erating out of the corners and eased off to let the group lap her. Once the organiser had given her a heads up on the strategy to use, she got back in and was not dropped again.
The bunch stayed fast but quiet for half a dozen laps and then Nick Kupiak (Broad Street Cycles), Brodie Hay (Dr. Walker), Sean De Pol (MIVA) and Vinko Poldrugovic (VRC) established a good break that gained ten seconds in two laps. Then Brodie dropped back, leaving the trio to continue gaining time. He was in turn joined by Tony Winter, one of the founders of MIVA and they stayed in no man's land for the next couple of laps until Aaron |Milan (CVCC) and then the resat of the group caught them.
The break continued to gain five seconds a lap on the bunch and seemed all set to lap the field until about fifteen laps to go when it became obvious that not all were pulling through and their pace dropped significantly. The bunch now started to catch them so Sean De Pol tried a solo effort and for the next six laps he stayed in the clear while Kupiak and Poldrugovic were finally absorbed by the group. Eventually, with just eight laps left, he too was reeled in.
Then De Pol jumped yet again, taking Brodie Hay with him and, with two laps to go, they were joined by Kupiak and Poldrugovic. This quartette stayed away but on the final lap, having dropped De Pol, the remaining three started dicing for lead-out position and Brodie and Vinko almost came to a halt, giving Nick the chance to take a well-earned win, with Brodie in second and Vinko rounding out the top three. Sean came in fourth at twelve seconds and Tony won the sprint for fifth place.