Happy new year everyone! Hope you had a great holiday!

For a number of us, the Festive 500 is an annual tradition, riding 500km between Christmas Eve and New Years Eve! Great to see a bunch of people signed up, and congrats to the following for getting 'er done!!

Great to see a bunch of you out hitting the segments as well, seemed the consensus was most quite liked the Chan Park segment, and the Bear Mtn was also new for many!

This week was a bit of a struggle - I had something planned, including a timed segment, but the other segment has some flooding. It was rideable today, but the week looks pretty wet, and that area floods pretty consistently, so will put that off for now.

Instead we're headed into Esquimalt for what might be one of the only gravel segments in the municipality! 😂 I spent quite some time trying to find another segment, but either the parks or paths were 'no bike', or there weren't any segments to speak of. But Cuthbert Holmes park isn't too far away, and I discovered a new segment in there, so we'll go with that.

Thank you again to all who've chipped in, thanks for helping make this project sustainable! 🥰

In that line of thought, I've updated all the 'event' pages on the ATR site, and surprisingly we have dates for nearly all local races! That includes gravel, mountain bike, and even cyclocross! Some road as well. Browse around the Victoria Cycling menu, and start filling up your calendars! The most recent addition is the Island Cup MTB series dates. (I try hard to make my site the best stop for event dates - tell your friends!)

Let's get on with our regular program!

RACING NEWS

Note: expect spoilers!

If you like watching cyclocross, the last two weeks are the best time of the year! The racing delivered, and while there's a million things to talk about, the highlight for me was seeing Canadian Rafaelle Carrier have the race of her life, and finish 3rd at Gullegum on Saturday! All the more impressive: she's only EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD! She's technically racing U23, but the fields are combined. She was actually leading the chase for a lap, and you could see just how good she was, putting on a clinic for long-time pros in some instances, and getting held up by riders like Zoe Backstedt. She's really looking like the future of cyclocross!!

Also, a really awesome little thing Puck did at Diegem - there wasn't a 3rd place medal for Alvarado for the podium, so she flipped hers around to her back. Very cool sporting attitude - no medal for her? Fine, no medal for me too!

It was a bummer to see Wout Van Aert out of the race with a broken anke on Saturday as well, but get this: journalist Jonas Creteur pointed out that it was Van Aert's first DNF in 239 elite races. Insane fortitude.

Finally, the Tour Down Under will be starting soon, and the Start Lists have been posted, here's the men's field:

https://tourdownunder.com.au/race/mens/start-list

Michael Leonard is the only Canadian. But the women's field is packed with Canucks:

https://tourdownunder.com.au/race/womens/start-list

Featuring World Champ Vallieres, Maggie Coles-Lyster from Vancouver, Oliva Baril (#81 on Movistar, looks like their GC rider), and Victoria's own Sarah Van Dam on her new Visma Lease-a-Bike team, #112. This will be exciting to watch!!

Latest rumour has Derek Gee moving to....Lidl-Trek?!

And finally, a parting photo from Lucinda Brand today, who still finished second despite having a moment like this - no this isn't photoshopped, that's a very steep sand hill in Zonhoven, what's your excuse?? 😂🤯

HOUSEKEEPING

Notes for the week:

Some updates from last week:

• Signed up this week are Josh, Maria, Scott and nearly Renata!

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!

SPONSORS AD

Running late this week, but here's something for us all to contemplate:

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! 😊

Nothing too much this week, but check out the cougar sounds in the Wildlife section! 🎶

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.

Cougars & Raccoons

Bicycle Dave once again was the Early Bird and has the most points overall, and a third seal this week gave me 3 bonus points!

Bears & Otters

Jolene picked up 6 points with triples of both bears and whales, putting her in second overall! Sonya picked up the Socialite points this week as well!

Seals & Wolves

John scored himself with three wolves, and Ryan as well!

BONUSES & CURSES

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

No KOM or QOM points this week.

• Early Bird (or should we call this 'Oyster Catcher'?) was Bicycle Dave
• Socialite points go to Sonya this week!
  (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!

Draw prizes are sorted!! I was hoping to put it all together today, but took longer than expected to figure out the segments, but will send out emails to four winners this week! Prizes mainly include $20 Goldstream Gift Cards, but also a couple Vegan Supply GCs, and a pair of small 100% elbow pads (for MTB).

Week #4: Jan 8th - 14th - Esqploring Esquimalt

This week we're checking out a suggestion from Nina S, and headed into Esquimalt! Highrock Park is our first destination, and I see only a handful of people from the ATR group have been up there, so most of us will be experiencing something new! (Including myself!)

It was tricky finding a new second gravel segment in or near Esquimalt, at least that legally allows bikes, but found another segment in Cuthbert Park that approaches from the south, so hopefully a little something interesting for many as well!

Segment 4A Name: To the top of Highrock Park
Deets: 0.45km, 42m elevation gain.
This is an existing segment, QOM is Ann Campbell with an 2:20 & KOM is Benoit Detering with a 1:31, and the LL is Steve Hurschler with 2 efforts! (Reminder these really don't matter.)
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/8477968

This is a new one for me, I checked out some potential road segments around Highrock Park in the summer, but never went into the park.

The segment starts on Matheson Ave, just off Lampson, which is just off the E&N. Starts on the road, and just wind your way up!

Looks like there's a few trails in there if feeling adventurous, plus a second segment here if feeling inspired: https://www.strava.com/segments/7214121

Segment 4B Name: colquitz the first
Deets: 0.95km, 12m elevation gain.
This is an existing segment, QOM is Erin Jalilian with a 2:L241 & KOM is Reckless Ricky I with a 2:00, and the LL is Laura Ockenden with 6 efforts! (Reminder these really don't matter.)
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/12088298

We've been through Cuthbert Holmes Park every season, so all should be fairly familiar - this segment starts sort of on the south-west side, and cruises across a scenic bridge, and ends up over on Burnside where you can get on the Goose, or continue up the Colquitz!

Happy riding!! 🚵‍♀️

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

ISLAND WILDLIFE CORNER

Each week we'll feature a little highlight about island wildlife, thanks to The Fur-Bearers! Consider becoming a member and supporting their work, and check out their socials for lots of great posts about wildlife, advocacy and peaceful co-existence.

Week 4 - Cougars

Watch out - there was a cougar siting in Esquimalt last week! They probably won't be too interested in us boney and sinew-y cyclists tho!

What's in a name? Cougars are also called mountain lions, panthers and pumas. They're all the same animal. Their scientific name is Puma concolor.

Puma Island? Vancouver Island is home to one of the largest populations of cougars, and they help to keep the deer population in check. Deer are their favourite food.

I'm gonna pounce! Their hind legs are longer than their front, making them excellent runners, jumpers and climbers.

Kill and cache! A cougar will commonly drag their kill to a hidden spot and cover it with leaves, soil, or snow. They'll return over several days to eat.

What's that meow? Unlike lions and tigers, cougars cannot roar. Their throat structure limits them to sounds like chirps, whistles and growls. Do yourself a favour and watch this, that sound ain’t no bird! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=351qXG1tSNE

THE SEGMENTS IN PHOTOS

Here's a few snapshots of the segments this week!

Riding with Marcus, Ann and Emma,
headed into the Bear Mtn segment!

Where we popped out - did anyone do the
secondary little section?

Headed into Chan Park,
this was a real treat, going to
have to figure out how to incorporate
it regularly!

TRAILEND

Take a peek at the scores, for some reason a few people from the first week were missing from my copy/paste last week, but I think I sorted it out... Also let me know if I missed any three-of-a-kinds with the icons, my eyes start to go a little crossed..haha

The week is looking kinda soggy, but hopefully you all find a few dry periods to get out!

As always, safe and speedy riding all! 🚲

- Dave

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