Finally, a week of consistently nice weather, and looks like we've got another!

35 riders out this week hitting Sinclair and Tolmie, owwie! Tons of FANTASTIC times logged, and a warm welcome goes out to Jim Holtz for joining us this week - he's been racing for FIFTY YEARS!! I met him back in 2003 on the velodrome, and he's been a fixture at nearly every skinny tire race I've ever been to.

Speaking of which, he was out at Newton Heights today (segments were just a warm-up!) The man, the myth, the legend - welcome to the series!

Another big thank you to all who've chipped in this series, I really appreciate you, and that you appreciate the series this much!! If you didn't get an email, or didn't check the box but would like to, just hit reply and let me know! 🥰

For our final week, I've gone and created another monster...only 8 people in the group have ridden this full segment, and I'm the only one of that group riding this season - who even thinks of these maddening routes! The KOM time is insane too...well, seems insane, we'll see how our group does! The QOM has a pretty low bar, I'm guessing we'll see this exchange hands a few times over the week!

And we've also got a rematch with another segment from the first season, it's a pretty straight-forward grind back on Mill Hill.

These are the last segments for the Spring Season, hopefully we'll see most riders give 'em a go for a final hurrah!!

ATR CLUB UPDATES

The Royal Bay Crit is looking really exciting - our team has been putting in a ton of time, and it's gonna be a fantastic race, and looks like we'll have a pretty amazing range of cash and prizes as well! It's Sunday, May 10th, so hope you'll come out and race, cheer, or volunteer! (Hit reply if you want to help out, I'll put you in touch with Abigail our volunteer coordinator!)

It's looking like we'll only be offering the Women's race - in addition to our regular A, B & C categories. I was hoping for a Youth race for riders 12-14, but haven't had a single sign of interest, so it's unlikely to happen - registration is live on the site, please sign up ASAP so we can get a sense of what the interest levels are! (No payment collected at that point.)

If you're on a team or club or have riding buddies, please help get word out about the Royal Bay Crit as well!

More for this group, a reminder that our next series is So You Think You Can Climb, starting RIGHT AFTER the Spring Segment Challenge, here's the page with signup!

Aaaand we're still looking for a laser printer, ideally colour, but B&W would be welcome, if anyone happens to have one kicking around they want to give away (or sell cheap!)

About The Ride is a registered non-profit and CyclingBC Club.

RACING NEWS

⚠Note: expect spoilers!⚠

Tons of racing this week!

I shudder to mention it, but the TC10K was this week, good job to all who ran it! I went and checked out the first wave of runners, saw a few familiar faces!

There was an Island Cup up in Campbell River, would loved to have gone there, but just a bit too far... Results here: https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=429218

The first VCL of the year was at Newton Heights today, fun watching riders do intervals..hahaha.. Got there in time to watch the B group race, they mostly stuck together with one rider off the front who held it to the end! And the A race looked like it was sticking together as well, but I had to leave halfway through. Not sure if there'll be results posted anywhere, haven't seen yet.

On Wednesday the women's Fleche-Wallone was fantastic, Vollering looked so strong, simply rode away on the Mur de Heuy, tho Puck got impresively close, nice to see her finish on the podium, and there were two Canadians in the Top 10, with World Champ Valieres in 6th and Ava Holmgren in 9th!

The Men's race saw Paul Seixas dominate again! He's becoming a tour de force!

The Tour of Turkiye started today too, and Victoria pro Riley Pickrell is there racing, finished 11th in the sprint in the first stage today!

And I've seen today's men's Liege-B-L, the podium is pretty much what you'd expect, but I haven't seen the women's race yet, looking forward to that, tho apparently only the final 45min was broadcasted, boo.

Windsor Park is next week, come check it out if you're not racing! And interesting that it'll start much later than usual (at least according to their IG post)!

HOUSEKEEPING

Notes for the week:

• Welcome Jimmy Holtz!

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!

6 <- THIS MANY WEEKS WITHOUT AN ERROR 🤣

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

SPONSORS AD

No sponsors this week, but if you're wondering if loose locks or a bun is more aero, wonder no more: https://www.bikeradar.com/news/ponytails-are-slower-than-buns-according-to-wind-tunnel-testing

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! 😊

There's a new Foo Fighters album this week, but I was even more excited to see Metric has a new release too!! So have listened to it just once, nothing quite popped out, but I was fairly distracted...should have a more detailed report next week!🎶

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

Good to have Tina back this week, shredding the hills and had the 7th fastest times on both segments! Can't wait to see how she does on the final climbs, and I'm hoping to get a new recruit for the A's this week as well to challenge her!

I was HUMBLED this week, I've created a number of monsters with the way some of these guys have been riding!! Julian was back to ride Tolmie, and his 2:26 landed him 3rd overall on the segment, just 8 seconds off Rob's KOM! Marco was 17sec behind, but still a rippin' time, and Justin was back to round out the podium! Travis killed it as well, and Sam too, but not quite enough this week! On Sinclair Sam beat Marco by 1sec, and there was a tie for 3rd with Justin and Travis. Evan and Joel W weren't far off in their efforts.

The B's

Pippa proved fastest this week on Tolmie, ahead of Renata. Sadly Sarah D didn't roll down Cedar Hill X to the actual start, tho she rode the rest of Tolmie! On Sinclair Renata had the edge by just one second over Pippa, and Sarah rounded out our podium there.

Dan B gets his first W of the season on Tolmie, tho not by too much ahead of Hugo and Joel C. Greg and Teddy were best of the rest. On Sinclair Hugo was top dog, with Greg and Teddy earning the lesser medals, and Joel C and Dan B were just seconds behind, as well as Michael Jones!

The C's

Sadly Julia was riding with Sarah D, and missed the segment start of Tolmie as well, so Kathryn didn't have a challenger there, and while Kathryn put in a great time on Sinclair, Julia had the better time on there!

Bicycle Dave earned the top time on Tolmie, with Dan C and Derek clocking close times. Bill R and newcomer James Holtz just missed podium spots! On Sinclair Dan C had the fastest legs, followed Dave and Derek, and Tyler and Bill just missed the spots. Great seeing Clayton, Ken, Kit, David R and Mike J putting in the efforts!

BONUSES & CURSES

See the Scoring section of the Event Page for more details on how you can score extra points every week.

• No QOMs or KOMs this week
• Early Bird was Bill R, an upset!!
• No secret times, but many were close!
• Socialite points go to Bicycle Dave!
  (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.)
• No Yellow Jersey curse
• No one succumbed to the Try Hard 'Local Legend' curse.

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!

A big thank you to Dan Blackwell aka @MortgageCyclist  for the draw prizes this week! I feel like the draws have disproportionally come up with guys, so this week I'm splitting it 50/50 male and female, and 8 names total! The (possibly sexist) Google randomizer has decided the following are worthy of a draw prize this week:

Michael Jones, KoS
Derek Kasper
Jon B
James Holtz

Tina Trumpy
Julia Barron
Kathryn TGreat
Pippa Kolking

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

Our prize page is live on the site, we've got so many fantastic items, most are now listed, take a peek!

Week #8: Apr 27th - May 3rd - Achin' on Atkins

It's finals week, and we've got a doozy for you! First up is another rematch from the first season, up Langvista Hill, a pretty straightforward climb that doesn't really relent.

And then our final is the full meal deal on Atkins, plus we keep spiraling upwards to Crystalview...and then even higher to the very top at Goldstone Heights! Who's been up there before? Not too many! I was originally planning just Atkins, but since it keeps going up...and up...and up...we wanna end on a high note, right? 😁

Segment 8A Name: Langvista Hill Climb
Deets: 0.87km, 11m elevation gain. (Not correct, probably closer to 60m)
This is an existing segment, QOM is Jellybeans ! with a 3:04, KOM is Elijah B. with a 2:24 & LL is Reckless Ricky with 1 ride!
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/2184826

I remember this one, it was a pretty warm day, 3yrs ago almost exactly! You get a little speed going into it, but that zip runs out very quickly, and you're on the pedals. And it's a grind all the way to the top!

Segment 8B Name: Who knew there was so much climbing here?
Deets: 1.84km, 106m elevation gain.
This is a new segment, QOM is Magalie Pouliot with a 7:40, KOM is Baili Guidi with a 3:42 & LL is none so far!
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/41098523

What have I created here? Oh boy, this is a long and tough one. I'd advise pre-riding this so you know all the twists and turns at the end. It makes sense once you're on there (just keep going up!) but worth previewing. Just cruise up Atkins off the Goose on the second crossing and you'll get to experience most of the segments without triggering the LL curse.

When you start from the bottom however, note that it's a good kick right at the beginning, but then levels off for a bit, so don't blow up there!

Also there's been construction on the lower section of Atkins for the last month, but looks like they're wrapping up, so hopefully there aren't any interruptions and everyone gets a clean run at the start!

Happy riding!! 🚵‍♀️

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

THE WEEK IN PHOTOS

Definitely not a staged photo on Tolmie!

The only direction anyone should ride on Sinclair. 😂

Good luck on the final segments this week!! Should be good prep for the climb series. 😉

If you're on IG or FB, be sure to follow About The Ride! And appreciate the likes, they also bump up the chances of the posts appearing in timelines of others, so don't hesitate to like the stuff you like, and we may get a few more riders in the series! 😁

Safe and speedy riding all! 🚲

- Dave

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