May 10, 2011, Boxwood Criterium #3
Nanaimo BC

My fitness was feeling much better during training this week, so I was really looking forward to this Tuesday's criterium. However, the week had many complications due to the passing of my Mother-in-law the previous Friday and the 10 difficult days of her hospitalization prior to that. Noel understandably took it very hard and the grieving process continues. Neither of us have been sleeping well recently.

I made sure I got two laps of warm up prior to this night's edition and we were also given 2 neutral laps due to the presence of a novice rider in our group. A total of 12 riders were present this time and I recognized some of the heavy hitters.

The weather was the usual overcast and 50 degrees and a few sprinkles came down during my warmup laps, but the roads remained dry. We had a bit of wind this time, with it being a tailwind in the finishing section. We started promptly at 7 pm.

After the first 2 laps, the pace picked up to a moderate 24.4 mph average and I was able to hang in there, but was feeling less powerful than I had anticipated. A few attacks would go off and I'd carefully pick my times to join an acceleration and each required a maximum effort that should have been fairly straightforward if I were in full fitness. On the sixth lap after the neutral laps we had a prime and I picked Ian's wheel as he had won the first prime the previous week. We passed 200 meters to go and everyone was still waiting, when someone jumped on the right and finally Ian made his jump on the left. I easily stuck to his wheel, but time was running out and I made my jump to come around his right side. He had thought the win was in the bag and had eased up and as I came up beside him, he jumped out of the saddle again. I was gaining on him and got to within 20 cm at the line, but he still won the $10 (top speed 38.5 mph).

Immediately after, Mike Sevcov made a lone attack and gained a good gap. My sprint had drained me and I was struggling to keep the pace on every lap, even though the average speed had slowed a little. At only 5 laps after the sprint, the pace picked up just a little and I dropped off the back and decided to call it a day. The attacks eventually culminated in everyone regrouping together, although only 8 were on the lead lap, and it came down to a bunch sprint. I probably should have ignored the prime and saved my energy to finish the race and I may have had a chance to finish and possibly even win (Ian came in second). But my mind was thinking that I was back in shape and I'll need to force myself to ride more humbly in the future. It's going to take time to get stronger, both physically and mentally.

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