MIVA BOXWOOD CRITERIUM 120724

MIVA BOXWOOD CRITERIUM, JULY 24TH. 2012 52 Minutes plus 5 Laps

Another fine evening but only ten showed for tonight's Boxwood criterium. We have had a total of thirty-six riders contest one or more of the races so the small field was disappointing. However, a wise? man from the east showed the rest how it's done. Ian Scott, a masters' 1 rider from Toronto is visiting Victoria on holiday  and he came up to Nanaimo to see what our criteriums were like. He is used to the Midweek Club criteriums with eighty plus starters, so he must have been surprised at our field of just 10.

After two laps Scott simply rode away from the pack and proceeded to take time out of the rest every lap, winning all the intermediate sprints in the process. The pack just weren’t organised and every time someone took a long- too long- pull, the next in line didn't take up the action. A good pace line could have eaten into Scott's advantage but it wasn't to be.

After thirteen laps, CVCC's ray Wagner soloed off the front of the pack and actually held Scott to twenty seconds but no-one else joined him and by lap sixteen he was back in the pack, whacked.

By lap twenty-four, Ian Scott had a minute on the bunch and showed no signs of flagging, two laps later taking fifteen seconds. On lap thirty the fast-moving Torontonian lapped the field and as it was the bell for the final prime, we expected a hard-contested sprint but when the riders came around into the finishing straight, Scott had taken another twelve seconds and took the prime alone.

With just five laps left, the lethargic bunch watched our visitor continue to ride away and at the line, it was Ian Scott finishing a lap and twenty seconds up. The sprint for second was just taken by Iain Hay from Ray Wagner and John Lam. The rest rolled in with the same time except for Matt Allardyce who had been lapped quite early in the race but who had managed to hang onto the pack once they caught him.

Tip for tomorrows Cedar ride: spend some time practising some serious pace line riding and apply it to the next criterium.