MIVA BOXWOOD CRITERIUM 130910 - THE LAST ONE THIS YEAR

MIVA Boxwood Criterium 13/09/10 40 lap criterium with 4 primes

The final criterium in the MIVA 2013 series saw one of the biggest fields of the year take the start. Included in the participants was Tony Winter, one of the founding members of MIVA, who now lives in Victoria and has been riding at the Juan de Fuca velodrome. Another welcome face was that of Peter Stevenson from Duncan riding for Experience Cycle. Other familiar faces were those of Dave Kenny, the still spry septuagenarian and Regis Chapman, who is returning to competitive cycling now that his Cassidy yoga studio iis up and running'.

As usual, the first couple of laps were neutralised to enable the youth riders to experience pack riding at near racing speeds and then the green flag dropped and the pace immediately picked up. The next few laps were among the fastest of the race and the pack was spread out in almost single file for a while, with veteran Dave Kenny losing contact. Then the speed dropped a notch and the bunch spread across the road.

With ten laps completed, the bell rang for the first prime and the speed increased again. The first sprint was won by Justin Mark from Chris Cameron and John Lam, with the rest of the pack close behind. By lap twelve, Regis Chapman, then Patrick Burnham and Mike Gill were dropped and by the seventeenth lap, both were lapped and rejoined the pack just before Justin won the second prime.

There was no further action until the third prime which was also won by Steed. Then Nick Kupiak attempted a breakaway, with Justin, Peter Stevenson, and John Lam going with him. In just a lap, they were five seconds up but the bunch, seeing that this was a strong group, set to and brought them back with ten laps to go.

With only four laps remaining, the bell rang signalling the final prime and this time Phil Birrer put his head down and held everyone else off to take the sprint from Burnham, Mark Wieler, Brodie Hay, Justin and Mike Sevcov.

As the race ending approached, the riders set up for the final sprint, knowing that a good position coming out of the last corner would give each the best chance of a high placing. Coming down the straight, Justin Mark was slightly ahead of Peter Stevenson, with Iain and Brodie Hay tucked in behind. Nick Kupiak and Chris Cameron were also in contention, as was Tony Winter As they crossed the finish line, Peter just edged Justin, with youth rider Brodie Hay getting a very creditable third place. Then came Nick who beat Iain Hay by a whisker and Tony Winter rounding out the top six.

All agreed that it had been one of the best races of the season.

In the youth event Abigail rode the twenty laps nearly two minutes faster than the previous week, with brother Aiden also improving on his previous time. It was great to see Dave Kenny, Regis Chapman and Patrick Burnham riding with the youngsters and helping them to improve their drafting skills.

Thanks to Doug Merrick, Glen Gordon and Doug Routley for doing the marshaling tonight.