A little on the late side with the series report, but here we are!!

Who came out on top in each category? What were the sign-up poll question results? Which team/category animal was most popular?

Find out now, as our series report is live on the site:

Click on the image, or here's the link: https://abouttheride.ca/winter-gravelquest-final-report-season-1/

Thanks to all who came out, it was a hoot to organize, and see you all out riding, and hearing from riders and the joy of discovering new trails and routes. It was a pretty good season, and good timing with the new Green Room trail in Royal Bay (make sure you check it out if you haven't already!)

A final big thank-you to all who chipped in for the series!! 🥰 This eats up a big chunk of my time, but appreciate your support and interest in helping keep the series sustainable.

We also have some final draw prizes - there are 7 prizes left, six are listed on the website, plus one bonus prize: a leftover Rene Herse gravel tire from the previous series!

The final batch of prize winners are:

• Jon B
• Bicycle Dave🇨🇦
• Markus K
• Rose Aarrestad
• Tanya B
• Jolene Phelps
• Dan Coulton

I'll email you all tomorrow afternoon. And as usual, first to reply will get their first choices, so keep an eye on your email inboxes!

So that's ALMOST it for trail riding with ATR, don't forget March 1st we've got our next installment of the Scrabblethon:

I'd encourage everyone to check it out, and join us!

It's mainly a fun event, you can ride laps with friends and make it a social event, or if you've got the race season coming up, it's a good chance to test the legs and push the pace!

Gravel or MTBs!

Laps are ridden for 1hr, and at the end, we all gather and try to spell the best word we can, and most points wins!!

The course is a loop in Francis-King - we actually rode a lap in the previous season of the Segment Challenge GRAVEL EDITION. It's got some light technical features, including a tricky corner, and there's really only one spot with a bit of mud (too catchy not to use the theme tho!)

More info and registration are live on the site: https://abouttheride.ca/scrabblethon/

Also Coming Up

For those who ride road, or have slicker gravel tires, the Victoria Segment Challenge will start up in March as well! It's got a similar spirit to the GravelQuest, with two road segments posted each week, often in neat areas, but this one is competitive, and scored by times.

But fear not, we've got A, B & C categories, and of course Open and Female groups as well. And I imagine we'll have our regular HUGE assortment of draw prizes!

ATR is Getting Bigger

Some more cool news that you're the first to learn: the About The Ride project is growing!

There's a need for more organized road racing, and the Royal Bay Crit I've been organizing has been quite popular with those who attended, and we've got a few more loops in mind.

In order to facilitate this, we'll be forming a non-profit, and create a CyclingBC team/club as well.

In addition to the road events in the summer, we're also looking into organizing a cyclocross race in the fall, and have a location in mind for that, so we may have a new addition to Cross on the Rock!

Aaaand we're probably going to make up some snazzy new ATR cycling kit, and that'll be available for all.

I'll send out updates as things progress, but if anyone's keen on being a part of our organizing team, hit reply and let me know how you'd like to be involved!

Exciting times for ATR!!

Upcoming Events / Local Racing Resources

If you haven't browsed around the ATR site, I also collect and track as many of the local racing events as I can find!

That includes Road, Gravel/CX and Mountain Biking.

You can find all the local event dates on these pages, plus events up-island, and some of the mainland highlights.

The latest page update includes the 2026 VCL (road racing series) dates, as well as details for the Tripleshot Women's Road Clinic series, for those who are interested in road riding, group riding, and racing! Check out this clinic series if you haven't before!

Click around the "Victoria Cycling Events" menu on the site for all these.

TRAILEND

Thanks again to all of you, whether new to the series, or a returning rider! It was so great having you join us all for the rides, and supporting this wacky event!! Your participation is how something like this comes about, and enables it to grow and thrive.

If I don't see you in the road series, have an amazing spring and summer, and we'll be back in the fall with an all new edition of the GravelQuest! 😊

Safe and speedy riding all! 🚲

- Dave

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feel free to simply hit reply!