Hope everyone enjoyed the segments this week, I imagine most (all?) had a bit of a hike as well! Numbers were a fair bit lower, only 28 riders this week, did I scare people off? A wee bit of hike-a-bike isn't really that bad! 😉

I had a promising start to Hector, but the rocks were a bit too greasy to clean, but managed the Panhandle climb (which I didn't make a few weeks ago!)

Heads up all who've won Virtuous Pie Gift Cards - the restaurant here is closing November 14th, so please use ASAP! If you can't make it, there's a restaurant in Vancouver near Chinatown, so you can save it for that as well.

The segments this week are very accessible, just a few minutes from the Switch Bridge, but please watch the notes - the 8A segment is NOT to be raced please! But the 8B segment is our final timed segment, and read the instructions closely - if you don't ride it properly, there's not much I can do for you.

As things are wrapping up, I know many appreciate having a goal every week, both for motivation to ride, as well as adding some variety. I have an idea for a 'Gravel Winterquest' series, that'd be very similar to this, but with less 'organizing', so no prizes, more low key, etc.. If you'd be interested, hit reply or leave a comment on Strava! (And just FYI, whenever I say that, it's very very rare anyone actually does, so if you really are interested, please do reply.)

Another shout out to the people who've chipped in, and be sure to let the event supporters who've provided so many awesome draw prizes know you appreciate them for supporting the series!! 🥰

Let's carry on...!.

Racing News

Note: expect spoilers!

A bunch of us were in Ladysmith today for the 4th Cross on the Rock, and it was a fun one!! Find all the results here.

This week was the Track World Champs, and I tuned in and caught a number of awesome races, but Canada really had a terrible performance (haven't seen today's results). Seeing Bibic eliminated 2nd in the Omnium was pretty sad to see (he's won this event a number of times), and I believe this is the first time in many years the women's Team Pursuit team didn't make the finals. From what I hear there's been mismanagement at the highest levels with Cycling Canada unfortunately, leading to bad decision, poor morale, and riders choosing to race elsewhere.

In the US, at Falmouth on Saturday, it was a Canuck sprint to the line with Maghalie Rochette edging out junior phenome Rafaelle Carrier. Our own Katja finished 7th as well, only 3min down! And I haven't had a chance to look, but apparently Kat finished 4th today!

Over in Europe, Saturday was the Heerde CX race, and both the men's and women's races were fantastic, watch if you can! Today's Overijse was quite good too, with a surprise just before the end of the penultimate lap..!

And in other news Alison Jackson and two other Canadians (Boilard from Uno-X and teammate Edmond) have joined the St Michel team, interesting to see.. Jackson was practically a 'brand' at the EF team!

HOUSEKEEPING

Notes for the week:

Nothing too exciting this week!

Reminder if your time didn't record (this week or any), please either tag me in your ride, comment on the Strava group post, or send me an email -- if you rode it, I can usually figure out a 'manual' time for you, but you need to let me know!

3 <- THIS MANY WEEKS WITHOUT AN ERROR 🤣

If there are any errors, omissions, issues, concerns, or anything else, feel free to hit reply!

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SOUNDTRACK NOTES

Note: 'back in my day' people talked about music, albums, etc.. Doesn't really seem to happen much these days, so I'm carrying on the tradition here! 😊

Catching up on racing, so no tunes tonight, but been meaning to check out the latest HAIM album, I've seen them on a few late night shows, am intrigued! 🎶

THIS WEEK IN RIDES

For those new to the series, results are tabulated each week, and the event page has all the results updated each Sunday night! To see the weekly results, hit the tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet.

The A's

The B's

The C's

Nothing too exciting this week since the segments weren't timed, but Tina once again smashed them FWIW!

Apologies for not getting the Overall page updated last week, there were some results I was waiting for confirmation on (if a rider was actually participating), and also general business, but it's fully updated now!

Speaking of the series overall, some categories are pretty locked up, but a others are pretty close, and lots of possibilities for final Series podiums - you'll want to give the segments this week a good go - you never know how it might turn out!! 

BONUSES & CURSES

See the Scoring section of the Event Page for more details - note that there aren't any curses for the Gravel Edition!

No KOM or QOM points this week.

• Early Bird was Bicycle Dave
• No secret time this week.
• Bicycle Dave once again collects the Socialite points with a cool action vid, plus a New Order tune, hard to top that, thanks to the others who posted too, but I usually only pick one!
  (Post a shot of your ride on IG or FB and tag @AboutTheRideCA for a chance for 5pts each week! If you've posted, but I haven't given you credit, or liked or commented on your post, please DM me directly, IG has been a bit finicky.)

PRIZES!

We've always got some sweet draw prizes every week! Watch our socials (Insta & Facebook) to see what we'll be giving away each week!

The best vegan fast food in the city is in the near future for eight of our riders, thanks to Odd Burger! I've got very generous $25 Gift Cards and the Google randomizer has decided the following are worthy of a draw prize this week:

Adam Wright
Tyler Galts
Bicycle Dave🇨🇦
Travis Orr
Markus K
Greg Goforth
Mark Devitt
Ken Trudgeon

Congrats!! I'll email you on Monday with the details!

Our prize page is live on the site, mostly everything is on there, take a peek!

Week #8: Oct 27th - Nov 2nd - Gravel's Elementary, My Dear Watson!

It's our final week, I can't believe our third season of gravel segments is wrapping up!

Two creative ones for you - one is (now familiar) trails, linked together for those who want to add on a little extra gravel on the way back into town (or out!) Plus our final timed/challenge segment concludes the season with a mysterious and confounding twist! 😂 (Be sure to pay close attention to the instructions!)

Segment 8A Name: I don't wanna stop gravelling! (AKA long way to go 400m)
Deets: 3.06km, 26m elevation gain.
This is a new segment, QOM is Jennifer Ward with an 8:03 & KOM is Vegan Dave Shishkoff with a 7:35, and the LL is none! (Reminder these really don't matter.)
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/40397327

Why cruise 400m of tarmac when you can add on a few more kilometers of trail! The leaderboard is basically a who's-who of people I ride gravel with as well. 😂

It starts on the Goose, where there's a little dirt 'exit' onto Burnside, and you take it to the bottom of the hill, and cross over to the Colquitz trail - be careful crossing here! Then it's a simple out, and back the Swan Lake Creek trail that we rode last week (backwards).

IMPORTANT: Please do not race this segment. I will impose a 50 point penalty on any rider who logs a time faster than 8mins. Save it for the timed segment. (After this week, go for it, but there are too many people and blind corners on this trail to rip it on my watch.)

Segment 8B Name(🔥TIMED🔥): Cuthbert Holmes and the Mound of Baskervilles
Deets: 1.79km, 36m elevation gain.
This is a new segment, QOM is Moraine Ruddick with an 10:54 & KOM is Vegan Dave Shishkoff with a 5:09, and LL is none!
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/40392355

It's our final timed segment! I whipped this up with the weather in mind - even if it's a crappy day, this is very accessible, and the trail itself won't be mucky, etc.. No excuses! 😂

Please take a close look at the routing - it's tricky and you do the Mount Cuthbert climb twice - a segment worthy of a Holmes!

The start is marked by that tall dead tree, and you'll rip along the flat portion of the trail and veer to the right where it descends a bit, and then the fun begins with the switchback climb!

IMPORTANT: Be sure to take that sharp left 'detour' at the top. If you skip this, there will be a 30pt deduction. I'll be checking the T10 results, plus some random rides further down the standings.

It's a surprisingly tricky left at the top, and once you get around that extra loop, you get a wee bit of recovery on the descent, but be careful because you're making that sharp left, and heading back up the switchbacks for a second run at them. Same as the first time, be sure to do the sharp left at the top, but this time on the descent, take it all the way to that dead tree, where the finish is. Good luck!

NOTE: They may be planting trees along the northern ridge, hopefully they won't be an issue for anyone. And also watch for walkers, please give them lots of space!!

Happy riding!! 🚵‍♀️

Updated on the site - as always Suggested Routing for this week: https://abouttheride.ca/victoria-segment-challenge/

It's the start of the Hector trail, how far up did you make it?
A good spot for blackberries in the late summer too!

That actually wasn't all that bad, now was it? 😁

The Panhandle climb was a doozy, even some
of the best of us had to hike it!

Another set of segments done!

This is it, the final week, get out there and ride some trails!!

Reminder of my ISO: In Search Of a colour (or B&W) laser printer! Could use for printing all the posters for the series of course, plus have some bigger plans for 2026 which will require even more printing, so would be swell to do that in-house! If you or someone you know has one they're looking to get rid of, hook me up!

Finally, CyclingBC has a vote happening right now (until Wednesday). It's to approve the $8 membership fee increase. (Thank goodness we still have this vote available to us, they tried to eliminate it with a previous vote, but it was saved, somewhat ironically, by just one vote.)

If you haven't seen, check out my post on socials (IG here, or Facebook) where I detail some of their spending inefficiencies, compared to Ontario Cycling. While it's a relatively small increase this time, I need to emphasize that this means anyone who wants to do a 'sanctioned' group ride will need to pay at least $109. That seems absurd to me. Less than 20yrs ago it was like $30 per year. And it should be MUCH closer to that. Ontario Cycling has an option that is $50 for adults. If you want to be a Tripleshot member to do a few rides a year, it's over $150 for the memberships and fees. 🤦‍♂️

I'm encouraging a 'no' vote on this, it probably will pass anyway, but it'd be good to let them know a substantial number of members want a change in this, and send a message to the board. Takes just a minute, follow the link in the CyclingBC emails. Thank you for helping make cycling more accessible to all!!

That's a wrap for this week, safe and speedy riding all! 🚲

- Dave

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