Here we are, now over halfway through the Spring series! The weather was a much better overall, tho a few surprise showers.

First up, a big thank you to all who've chipped in so far! It's really appreciated, and it's great to see how much you value the series, thank you so much! 🥰

I hope everyone had fun up Mill Hill! We've got two riders added to the series this week as well, and some more impressive times in the books.

It was especially fun for me, as I got out with Josh and Renata on Tuesday, along with my regular partner in pain Dave B. And we ran into Dan B there as well!

It's funny how you encounter people on some random side street, I also came across Joel W on Saturday when I went back to give Kingsview a second go!

This week I've got a couple *cough* fun ones - we're headed over to Interurban, and headed up Conway for the first time in the history of the Segment Challenge! Been waiting a while to include this one, and it has a fun twist. More on that later!

I've got a couple cool videos to share, one is a GCN interview with Andy Coggan and Hunter Allen, who literally wrote the book on training with power, and developed WKO & Training Peaks. They chat about FTP and it's relevance, and some surprising insights on testing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61zuiF3-hDY

There's a neat vid called 49 Puddles as Pelle Gustavs clears 49 puddles on one of those rainy days at Hartland, pretty neat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6eRnvHnVYs

And finally, a preview of what's happening in May, if you haven't already seen this on the front page of the site, I've come up with a little graphic for the hill climb series:

Racing News

It was Jeremy's Roubaix on the mainland, and Victoria rider Tristan Drews (Red Truck) won the men's elite race, looks like it was a pretty big bunch sprint as usual. Predictably Sidney Swierenga won the women's race by a healthy margin, but Kimberly Chen claimed 3rd!

This weekend we saw some XCC & XCO (short track & cross country) mountain bike action at Jordie Lunn, with the start of the Island Cup MTB series. This was also a test-run for the Canadian National MTB Champs, which will be run in the same course later in the year!

It was pretty cool to see the likes of pros like Ian Ackert and Sandra Walter, as they both won their races today, and lots of locals in on the action as well, including many of our segment riders! Great seeing you all out there, and cheering you on!

There was some great road racing this week as well, in the women's Gent-Wevelgem today Lorena Wiebes scored her 100th pro victory!! And how could she not, getting an incredible lead-out by her teammate and current World Champion Lotte Kopecky! The men's race finally saw Mads Peterson take a classic, solo with 60km to go, ouch!

E3 Saxo Classic was pretty awesome too, with van der Poel dominating once again. Also earlier in the week was the Brugge-De Panne, where Wiebes claimed her 99th victory, and local Mara Roldan could be seen doing a lot of the pulling in the final portions of the race.

The men's race was absolute chaos, or hectical as they sometimes put it, with MANY crashes in the final kilometers. I don't think there's ever been a finish quite like that (we've had a few insane ones this year! Like where most of the bunch sprinted on the wrong road!!) Local sensation Riley Pickrell was in there, and managed to finish 12th with the bunch, getting ping-ponged around. Pretty wild stuff!

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! 😊

There's been too much bike racing to catch up on this week, so had Gent playing in the background.🎶

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

Brooklynn was our sole A this week, but still locked in some impressive times, and showing most our guys how you climb!

Over with the guys, we've got another fast one added to the bunch, and Justin Koberro dropped some incredibly speedy times! He had to settle for 3rd tho, as Phillip and Julian took the top spots again this week, Julian was just 1sec off the time on Jeanine-y, and had a bit of traffic on his run. Dan B and Dave B both swapped 4th/5th on each segment as well, with impressive times. Me, not so much this week. 😂

The B's

Newcomer Gabrielle dropped some pretty solid watt bombs this week, topping Renata on both segments, and actually taking the top time on the B segment, ahead of Brooklynn by a few seconds, and claiming the QOM! 🏆

Daniel S once again dominated his field, around 20sec faster on both. Travis made another couple podium spots, with 2nd and 3rd, and Josh also had a fantastic week with 3rd and 2nd! (Seems like everyone who rode with me got better times this week!!) Scott finished just off the podium on Kingsview, and Joel W has returned and was 5th (despite riding a loaded gravel bike!) And they both swapped those positions on the other segment as well.

The C's

Last week Kathryn was the one missing, recovering from an injury, but it's a total reversal this week as she was the lone C rider, so top points for her! In the overall, she jumps way up in the field as well.

The competitive men's C field continued this week, with Greg continuing his winning streak with a win on the A segment. Ron and Ben rounded out the podium there, with Kit and Tyler G not far behind. On the B segment there was an upset, with Tony B being the first rider to knock Greg off the top step this year! Kit rounded out the podium, with Ron and Ben just behind. David R, Bill and Mike J, keep it up, you'll get these guys!!

BONUSES & CURSES

See the Scoring section of the Event Page for more details!

As mentioned, Gabrielle claimed a QOM!

• Early Bird was Tyler G!
• No Secret Time this week (4:39 & 3:03)
• I didn't see any tags, so sadly no Socialite points to award.
  (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.)
• The Local Legend curse was also Tyler G, unfortunately cancelling out his Early Bird points.
• No Yellow Jersey curse as usual.

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!

Prizes this week are from Brentwood Cycle, and there are way too many items to list, but big props to them for really going to town with rewards for you guys!! Looking at the breakdowns this week, I went with 3x A, 4x B and 4x C, and the randomizer gives me:

Brooklynn Taylor-Clark
Phillip Jurek
Julian Cameron

Joel Wheeler
Renata Troc
Gabrielle Leung
Joel Crocker

Greg Goforth
Kit St. John
Ben Peres
Kathryn TGreat

Congrats!! I'll email you on Monday with the details, be sure to reply ASAP! 😉

Check out all the prizes (so far) here - there are some really awesome items, and we're not quite done yet: https://abouttheride.ca/victoria-segment-challenge-season-7-prize-list/

Week #5 - Mar 31st - Apr 6th - Conned into climbing Conway!

We're over halfway throughout the season!! It's time to start bringing in some tougher segments, and I've been putting off Conway for some time now, but this week it's go time! And in keeping with the theme of the season, another segment with a fast finish!

Segment 5A Name: "To climb steep hills requires a slow pace at first."
Deets: 0.57km, 34m elevation gain.
This is a new segment, QOM is k kit with a 2:32 & KOM is Colin Daniels with a 2:03, and there is no LL.
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/38831954

I think most have done Conway, one way or the other. This way is definitely the toughest. Two steep kicks, but it doesn't end there, as this week you get to make a right and continue up Stratford where it continues to ascend (tho not as steep.) It's only been ridden by 26 people (and 36 attempts) thus far, and I predict we'll see new a new QOM and KOM this week.

Segment 5B Name: Logan to Liberto - let's put a little mustard on it
Deets: 1.66km, 12m elevation gain.
This is a new segment, QOM is Mega Rath with a 2:27 & KOM is Parker Bloom with a 2:09, and there is no LL.
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/38832027

While we're in the neighbourhood, let's enjoy the road that is Hector! I wanted to begin this segment up by Stratford, but that twist at the end of Conway is a bit dangerous, so opted to start it at Logan Park, and end it at Liberto (before the steep descent) for safety. This should still be a pretty fast segment, and will be interesting to see if the top times can be beat!

Happy riding!! 

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

Decisions and more decisions...
This was a nasty section, which
we had to ride up twice!!

No smiles on the climb, but once
they're done, it's not so bad!!

That's the end of the road for this week's update!

Thanks for tuning in, and hope to see your name on the segments this week!!

Safe and speedy riding all! 🚲

- Dave

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