July 5, 2011, Boxwood Criterium #10
Nanaimo BC

With it now officially being summer, the weather is trying to cooperate. This last week brought days where the high would tickle 70, but with the high humidity (threatening clouds most days) and wind, it still had enough of a chill to keep me covered. I had gone on a rolling ride with David in Duncan on Thursday and my calves started cramping after 38 minutes, so the rest of the week was just recovery riding. I was up until 5 am trying to finish a project, but got just enough sleep anyway. Race day proved to be sunny and in the mid 70's and the first real chance to feel comfortable in shorts and a regular jersey. The nice weather seemed to put a smile on everyone and everyone's greeting contained admiration for the positive change in the climate.

17 riders showed up this week and the laps were bumped up to 42, with the first 2 at a neutral pace. We'd have 4 primes again and places for the final 3. Both Warren and Ian were in attendance, as well as Mike, as the guys to watch. My quads felt like lead and had a hint of cramps before even starting, so I was planning on being very conservative in the beginning.

Course (all right hand turns):


After the neutral laps, the pace was only moderate (24 mph) with no attacks, which was perfect for me. I kept my eye on Warren and Ian and neither seemed too antsy to make an early go of it, so it was a very pleasant start. With 31 to to, the bell for the first prime was rung and Warren made an early bid for it going up to turn 2, gaining enough on the back stretch that nobody contested him after turn 3. Warren's not the kind to continue solo and he was already easing up before the line, but Ian made an acceleration and passed Warren after the line and kept going. Warren joined him and we had 2 away. However, they were just hanging out about 10 seconds in front and sat at that distance for several laps.

I was sitting at the back of the bunch, just watching. The 2 started to creep a little bit further out and I asked Mike if he was ready to chase (I didn't really want to do it myself) and he said he was about to. A couple of laps went by and Mike did nothing and the gap increased some more, so on the finishing stretch I took a flyer (hitting 37.2 mph) and was surprised that I was able to maintain a good speed all the way up to the 2 breakaway guys, catching them at turn 3 with my fastest lap at 1:31. I immediately started taking turns as I wanted this effort to stick and not be wasted by just being caught by the pack. The three of us were working well together, but I still was trying to bring the speed up at each turn at the front. We were slowly making gains on the pack, but they were still in sight and Mike was able to slip off the front and also join us, but again was not able to take a turn for a couple of laps after making contact. Warren said that we were going to split the primes up evenly and I was in total agreement, as I could then save my energy for the final finish and both Warren and Ian were likely to take the primes anyway.

At 21 to go we have finally gotten out of sight of the pack and the next prime bell was rung. I led through turn 4 and pulled over and Ian took his turn at the front, officially taking the prime as we continued to work smoothly together. Well somewhat smoothly. Mike was faltering a bit and I was on his wheel, with Ian on mine. So when I would pull off, Ian would pick up the pace and Mike would leave a gap on Warren and then we'd both have to make up the distance. So I jumped onto Ian's wheel when he came back and thus I could keep with Ian during his strong pull and not get handicapped by Mike.

We ride a closed course, where we take the inside lane and it is marked off with traffic cones and signs at the corners, stating that a bike race is in progress and "no left turns". We have a permit to ride here and this is the third year that the races have been on this course, which have races every Tuesday all throughout the summer. Part of that permit requires us to inform all the residents and businesses before the season as to what will be going on, to help avoid surprises. The permit was also given with the understanding that all work in the area should be stopped by 5 pm and we only start setting up our course around 6:30 pm. On this day, there was a new home being built just after turn 2 on the outside of the course and a bulldozer was loading a dump truck and trailer with dirt. With about 15 laps to go, the dump truck made a left turn, driving on the left side of the street, just as our break came down the back stretch. We were right beside it and it eventually out ran us, but is was kind of big and scary and definitely illegally driving on the wrong side of the road, causing me to worry that it may move over to the right side of the road where we were.

With 13 laps to go, I began to feel the effort in my legs and began to concentrate on conserving my energies where I could. At 11 to go, the bell was rung for the next prime and I took the lead after the 4th corner and led it across the line uncontested. As we came around turn 2 at our steady pace, we were all of a sudden confronted with the dump truck and trailer moving crosswise directly in front of our path, with it's front wheels off the pavement and almost into the lawn of the house across the street. Warren and Ian just squeaked around it, but Mike and I had to ride onto the lawn. Since I had just taken the turn previous to this, I was at the back and lost the most ground. As I turned back to look at the truck driver in disbelief, I saw him get out of the truck and he started yelling at me to come back so that he could kill me (along with many expletives). I just shook my head in disbelief and hoped that my companions would wait up for me as I tried to catch back up. I told the corner marshal at turn 3 that a truck was intentionally blocking the road back there. Unfortunately, my break away companions slowed a bit, but not very much and it was taking me a while to close the gap as I chased solo.

When I came around turn 2 again I was relieved to see that the truck had cleared the road. But then two guys came running out of the construction area with the obvious intent of not letting me pass, arms out in a football tackler's stance. I came to a stop before they could knock me to the ground and one of them grabbed my bike, threatening to damage it. He put his nose about half an inch from mine and said that if I don't stop riding my bike that he was going to beat the **** out of me. The other larger guy (the guy that had originally driven the truck in front of us), was right there to assist him if he could get the chance. I said I was doing nothing wrong and that we even had a permit to use the road, but his anger was out of control and he would not listen to any logic. I just had to keep him from totally blowing it with the obvious threat of punches and wait for the rest of the pack that would soon be coming around the corner to be my Calvary. Soon 10 other riders came screaming around the corner and I turned my bike sideways to stop them and get their assistance. They all stopped and started confronting my adversaries as I quickly went backwards on course to the finish line to tell the meet official to call the police. He is an elderly man, still recuperating from a bike accident, and he immediately jumped in his vehicle to rush to the scene and I told him to call the police first as they were bent on violence. Fortunately the other corner marshal had already called the police and two patrol cars arrived shortly. The race was canceled at this point.

Peter, the race organizer, spoke with the police first and showed him our permits. The guy that assaulted me lived on the street, so he had been notified prior to the start of the season that we would be using the streets for our races every Tuesday. At the time that they used the truck to try to crash us, we had already been racing for 50 minutes, going by them about every 1:40, so there should have been no surprises that would have caught them off guard to cause an accident. They told the officer that they could have killed us because we were illegally using the streets. The officer asked him for some ID and he had none. I pointed out that the man sitting up in the running truck was the man that had driven the truck in front of us and threatened to kill me. He asked that man for some ID and he had none (and he was operating a truck on public roads). The officer told him to shut off the truck and then took their story.

One officer took my report and contact information and then asked me what I would like him to do. This caught me off guard as I am not aware of all the infractions that may have incurred. I basically said that you can't fix hatred and said that no matter what he did to them, they would still be a threat to us in the future. We'll see what develops next week, as I'm sure the construction will be continuing.

Max speed 37.2 mph, Max heart rate 189 bpm. The prize money was distributed evenly to the top 4 riders in the breakaway.

At least I didn't get to the point of suffering any cramps today.

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