MIVA BOXWOOD YOUTH AND SENIOR CRITERIUMS 120703

MIVA Boxwood Criteriums 120703 Boxwood Road, Nanaimo, BC

Youth Event: 16 laps, 32.4kph

The third youth event in this year's series saw six starters - five from Courtenay/Comox and MIVA's sole Nanaimo representative, Brodie Hay. There were two new faces in Kia Van deer Vliet (a cycling name if there ever was one!) and Jane Harmsworth's younger sister Lindsay.. The field was rounded out by last week's winner, Eli Simcoe-Metcalfe, Jane, and Jessica Reynolds. As by far the youngest starter, Lindsay was instructed that once she drifted of the back, she should ease up and wait for the circling pack to catch her so that she could experience the higher speed for a while, and this she did.

The prime at six laps was easily taken by Eli and then he, Jessica and Kia formed a small group at the front of the race. Brodie lost contact and continued riding solo but stayed with the leaders once he was lapped, with three laps to go,. He again dropped back but managed to regain the pack with a lap to go and was third in the final sprint. Jane had dropped back and rode with her sister for a short while. She too was lapped with six laps to go but couldn't stay with the leaders and eventually finished alone in fifth place.

In the final sprint, Eli just managed to outgun Jessica for the win with Kia in third place at the same time.

It's great to see the youth riders out and it won't be too long before there are ten or more riders racing in this category

Main Event: 50 minutes plus 5 laps. 40.25km 58'20" 41.4kph

Eleven men and one woman contested this tenth race in the weekly criterium series. Glenda Harling only had to finish the event to earn her twelve points but husband Mike Sevcov bailed after only four laps (unusual for Mike) and so she exited a couple of laps later.

After only two laps, there was a split in the bunch and Last Sunday's Island Cup event winner, Warren Muir pushed up the pace, taking eight of the eleven remaining riders with him. Steve Crowley, Iain Hay and Mike Sevcov chased hard but just couldn't make any impression on the leaders. By the fourth lap, Mike had abandoned and Iain and Steve were losing ground, while Bill McMillan had also dropped from the lead pack. Within another two laps, Iain had retired too and Steve and Bill were now working together.

After just one more lap, Mark Wieler was shelled out of the pack and he too retired. By the bell lap for the first prime, the pack was down to five, with Kyle Waring struggling to maintain contact. On this lap, Mark also left the race.

Prime number one was taken convincingly by Warren, with Rob Russell and Ian Smith filling out the top three. Shepherd Stewart and John Lam was also in trouble and first John and then Shep dropped back. Then Rob Russell faltered, leaving just Warren and Ian in the lead. Shep retired a couple of laps later

The order on the road was now Warren and Ian, a gap to John, Rob having abandoned, another small gap to Kyle and then Bill and Steven Crowley chasing. However, by lap thirteen, Bill and Steven had clawed their way back towards Kyle, who was catching up on John - third on the road. By lap fifteen Kyle had caught John but the two were now lapped by Warren and Ian. The second prime was now approaching and four were there to contest it, lapped riders being allowed to sprint for intermediate primes. John took this sprint from Warren, with Ian in third place and Kyle remaining in contact. These four now stayed together while Bill and Steven were still advancing  and within another lap they were back with Kyle and John and they managed to stay with them.

That's the way it stayed for the rest of the race, with Kyle taking the fourth prime from John and Steve. Warren and Ian, being a lap up on everyone else had dropped back to allow the others to sprint for third place one lap before the final contest for the win. This secondary sprint was taken by Kyle, with John , Steve and Bill finishing behind in that order. The battle for the win was very close, with Warren just edging Ian in the sprint. This was one of the most exciting races of the series. With first class riders like Warren Muir and Ian Smith becoming regular contestants, the general standard of riding and speed are sure to improve. It should be noted that both Warren and Ian did a proper warm-up for this evening's race, doing a number of laps at race speed.