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.

With one more criterium race to go, here are the updated results. The tie between Justin and Ian was broken by comparing head-to-head results for the two racers. Justin scored 56 points to Ian's 55 points, giving Justin the lead by a narrow margin.  

Rank	Senior Men	Points	Races Counted
1	Justin Mark	60	5
2	Ian Smith	60	5
3	Nick Kupiak	58	5
4	Ray Wagner	54	5
5	Chris Cameron	51	5
6	Menno Jongsma	48	5
7	Iain Hay	46	5
8	Marc Wieler	45	5
9	Mike Sevcov	40	5
10	Paul Thompson	37	5
11	Evan Earp-Jones	37	5
12	Aaron Milan	36	5
13	Michael Gill	32	5
14	Bruce Perry	28	5
15	Bill McMillan	28	5
16	John Lam	23	5
17	Shepherd Stewart	20	5
18	Steve Struthers	20	3
19	Russell Berg	19	3
20	Scott Doran	19	4
21	Steve Crowley	19	5
22	Patrick Burnham	18	5
23	Phil Birrer	16	5
24	Shawn Boyd	14	3
25	Mike Gill	12	5
26	Don Gillmore	12	1
27	Mike Mann	12	2
28	Rob Russell	11	2
29	Matt Allardyce	10	3
30	Mike Addiscott	10	2
31	Fred Hodgson	10	2
32	Kyle Waring	8	2
33	Normon Thibault	6	3
34	Dave Kenny	5	3
35	Regis Chapman	2	2
36	Kirby Villeneuve	2	1
37	Quentin Wicks	1	1
38	Sean De Pol	1	1
39	Mark Overton	1	1
40	Adam McConnell	1	1
41	Ron Hewitson	1	1
42	Colby Large	1	1
43	Rob Bau	1	1
Rank	Youth Men	Points	Races Counted
1	Brodie Hay	60	5
2	Aiden Hare	58	5
3	James Grant	58	5
4	Mark Grant	48	5
5	Ian Gillmore	10	1
6	Andrew Grant	1	1
Rank	Senior Women	Points	Races Counted
1	Charlene Hay	52	5
2	Glenda Harling	24	2
3	Janna Gillick	22	2
4	Laurie Ritchie	13	2
5	Lorrie Baildham	12	1
6	Cheryl Morch	12	1
7	Katie  Wallington	9	1
Rank	Youth Women	Points	Races Counted
1	Abigail Hare	60	5
2	Jessica Reynolds	60	5
3	Mykelti Berg	44	4

This year the popular MIVA cyclo-cross clinics return for a third year. The venue is Beban Park BMX grounds and the new day and time is Wednesday from 5pm on. All MIVA members and associate members may take part for free. Charge for non-members is $5 per session.  Dates are:

September 11th.

September 18th.

Septenmber 25th.

October 2nd.

If you do not have a cyclo-cross bike, bring a road bike as carrying a front or full suspension MTB gets pretty tiring. Topics covered will include:

bike equipment and preparation (tires, pressures, gearing, adapting your road bike), course walking and examination, getting over natural and artificial obstacles, dismounting and mounting, bike carrying,  negotiating  the running (walking?) sections, pacing yourself through the event.

For your interest and edification here is a video of a 1950's cyclo-cross in Britain. Note the bikes and the course features plus the Le Mans start; a little different from today's carbon bikes and fast technical courses!

1	Justin Mark	Steed Cycle	M	S2	1h 10' 08”
2	Ian Smith	MIVA	M	MA	s.t.
3	Nick Kupiak	MIVA	M	S3	s.t.
4	Iain Hay	MIVA/VYPRS	M	MB	at 1' 27”
5	Mike Sevcov	Cycle Therapy	M	MC	s.t.
6	Phil Birrer	MIVA	M	S4	s.t.
7	Shawn Boyd	MIVA/HCTC	M	MA	s.t.
8	Bill McMillan	MIVA	M	MB	s.t.
9	Mark Wieler	Arrowsmith	M	S3	at 1' 35”
10	Bruce Perry	MIVA	M	MB	at 1 lap
11	Mike Gill	MIVA	M	MB	at 1 lap
12	Patrick Burnham	MIVA	M	MA	at 1 lap

Primes: first – Justin Mark, second – Shawn Boyd, third – Ian Smith, fourth – Ian Smith

Youth Race 20 laps

1	Abigail Hare	MIVA	YF	47' 17”
2	Aiden Hare	MIVA	YM	lapped

MIVA Boxwood Criterium 13/09/03 40 lap criterium with 4 primes

With only next week's event left in the series, we expected a fairly good turnout and were not disappointed. The pack stayed pretty much together until the second prime at seventeen laps to go. After Shawn Boyd won the sprint, Justin Mark and Ian Smith moved up to the front of the group and were quickly joined by Nick Kupiak, with Phil Birrer chasing hard, just in front of the rest of the bunch. Two laps later, Phil had dropped back and the lead trio pulled clear, working well together. They then proceeded to gain seven to eight seconds each lap and by the finish were almost a minute and a half up.

Justin won, with Ian second and Nick third, all three beeing given the same time. The bunch sprint for fourth was taken by Iain Hay from Mike Sevcov, with Phil Birrer and Shawn Boyd just behind.

All agreed that this was a very different race from the rain soaked one last week, and all are looking forward to the final event in the series.

Thanks to MLA Doug Routley, a MIVA member, Jason Hare and Brodie Hay for doing the important job of marshaling.