In most bike races, when you get a flat it means trouble. For most of us, we don't race on a team with domestics that can come back and get us to bring us back into the pack. At the amateur level, even if you do have teammates they may not even know you have a flat.

Then worse, the vehicle "de depannage" may not even allow you to draft, so you have to time- trial you way back to the pack. In many cases, that means the end of your race. And to make things worse, some spoon may decide to attack while you're changing your wheel.

In most criteriums the free lap rule is in effect until a few laps before the end. That means if you get a flat, you slowly make your way to the officials at the start/finish line. Once there, you can get a wheel change and the officials will let you get back on your bike before the next time the pack comes along so you can gently integrate the pack. The worse crash I have experienced was at the Lachine criterium where a rider tried to merge at the same time the pack passed resulting in a massive pile up at 55 km/hour.

The officials will give you a free lap if the nature of your problem is accidental. I have seen a case where a rider had his seat detach from his seatpost, and the officials did not give him a free lap judging it was bike maintenance issue. Crashes also entitle you to a free lap - that is if you are part of the crash. If you were just slowed down by a crash and a gap opened, that doesn't count for a free lap.

I learnt the free lap rule the hard way, many years back when I attacked in a crit, only to look stupid having my tires skid taking me down out a few corners later. As a newbie, I spent the next 2 laps bridging to the tail end of the pack. I could have simply used that friendly free lap.

All this rambling for a little race report. Last Tuesday,  I decided to gauge my form on the first of the Mardi Cyclistes in Lachine, a Montreal suburb. Around the fifth lap I got a flat. In a race where the average is close to 50km/hour, taking a break for a couple laps is a nice side effect of having a flat. The race was pretty uneventful. I really was not an actor in the race, just hanging'in like 90% of the pack, but I felt very comfortable. So all these evening loops around Mount-Royal are paying off.

A break formed with Martin Gilbert of Spidertech, David Vielleux of Kelly Benefit, some riders from the Garneau team, so the race was pretty much over at that point with such strong riders.

Hopefully I'll be in Lachine more often this year, and who knows, maybe be part of the action if the form keeps getting better.