Crit Corner is a new series of videos being filmed in the Escape Velocity series on the Lower Mainland at their UBC and Glenlyon races this year.  A fantastic commentary over top of some exciting race footage, I’ve found each of the first three videos to be interesting and informative. In his own words –

This is a new project I'm trying out. The goals are threefold:

1. Help you improve your crit performance through real-world examples and lessons
2. Help me improve my crit performance through in-depth analysis
3. Show off the sport in a unique way and hopefully build interest.

This is my first foray into the world of YouTube series, so there will be some growing pains. The eventual destination are episodes focused on specific components of a race or specific skills and techniques. I'm hoping to pump out one of these a week all summer, using footage from our weekly crits, stage races, provincial champs, and Super Week.

I'm not the best crit racer out there, but through this I hope to get a lot better and to fill a niche. I'm trying to keep it entertaining, even if you don't race.

So if you’re looking for tips and pointers, interested in what crit racing is all about or just want a mid week break from your TPS reports check it out.

Episode 1 Tour of Walla Walla

Episode 2 Breaking Away

Episode 3 Going for the Sprint

After four weeks of criteriums, we've tallied the results! Given the rain (no points awarded) and the neutralized finish (two points for all starters), the series is still wide open. A few notes on the categories and scoring. Like in previous years, we split the men and the women and the adults from the U19s from the final standings and assign points as follows: 12-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-2-2. As in, all finishers outside of the top nine receive 2 points. If you feel that there are any errors in the scoring that could materially affect the year-end results, please contact us and we'd be happy to reevaluate.

(by Peter)City Cycles Boxwood Criterium #4 160503

The threatened rain held off for tonight's 40 lap criterium and 23 starters, including 3 new cadets from Courtenay and a couple of independent seniors, lined up for the 7pm start. Perennial commisaire Peter McCaffery, aided by trainee official Julian from VIU announced that this was to be his final assignment (yeh – right!) and that following tonight's race, he would finally be retiring as a working judge and that future volunteering at MIVA's events would be on an ad hoc basis. The first few laps of the criterium went at an almost pedestrian pace – quite a change from last week's record speed of over 43kph - but the tempo soon increased as a number of breakaway attempts came from the visiting TAG youth riders and also from Nick Kupiak, Justin Mark (BRBC), James Sage (MIVA) and Daniel Wilson (Independent). Janna Gillick (ATAC) was also at the front for much of the time and actually took second in two of the intermediate sprints. The first three primes were won by Kupiak, who was clearly a cut above the other competitors and with 13 laps to go, the Broad Street Cycles rider finally managed to create a small gap of 9 seconds but he was hauled in within three laps and the bunch stayed together until the final sprint, with independent Tyler McCallen taking the 4th. Prime on the way. Nick timed his final effort beautifully and crossed the line a couple of seconds ahead of the main bunch, with nearly all the pack posting the same time and only four riders losing one or more laps. Although no-one reported abandoning the race, some riders didn't finish so any riders who quit the course, get in touch with Peter at pakamac@gmail.com So we can finalise the results. Thanks to our marshals and to those who set out the circuit in the absence of Iain Hay, who is recovering from his nasty crash last week. RESULTS: 1 Nicholas Kupiak Broad St. Cycles 01/10/03 s2 2 Isaac Van der Vliet TAG Cycling At 2” cad 3 Dr. John Lam MIVA st MA 4 James Sage MIVA st 5 Janna Gillick ATAC st W 6 st 7 Mike Sevcov Cycle Therapy st MC 8 st 9 Mike McCarney MIVA st MB 10 st 11 James Grant TAG Cycling st jun 12 st 13 Justin Mark Bike Race BC st s2 14 st 15 Sean De Pol MIVA st MB 16 Tyler McCallon Independent st S4 17 Bill McMillan MIVA st MC 18 Dr. Steve Crowley MIVA st MB 19 Robin Dutton Coal City Cycles At 31 “MA 20 Ayden Houle MIVA At 1 lap cad 21 Lee Zavarise MIVA At 1 lap MB 22 Trent Carter CVCC lapped cad 23 Devon Norris Cycle Therapy lapped S4

unplaced Mark Wieler? Rock City Cycles/MIVA MB Ben Katerberg TAG Cycling cad Kevin Park CVAA S3 Daniel Wilson Independent MB Mark Grant TAG Cycling Jun

Aspengrove School is hosting a 10k bike ride with Clara Hughes on Saturday May 14th at 11am. Come ride a 10k loop in Lantzville and support the Canadian Mental Health Association with a small donation. This is a family oriented event which includes a shorter ride on grass for the very young ones too.Simply register using the link below and donate when you get there. http://www.aspengroveschool.ca/gala/ride-registration/

If you are interested in hearing her speak at our fundraising Gala here is the info. http://www.aspengroveschool.ca/gala/

We had another great night on Monday with 18 riders showing up. This allowed us to split into 3 different groups. The faster group enjoyed an interesting twist of route choice which included climbing Meadow road.If the Wednesday night group is too fast for you why not come out Monday night as it looks like we will always be able to offer a faster group ride this night. The "new to group riding" or slower group enjoyed a fun ride which included some tips on technique and group riding etiquette. Come on out next Monday!