We did it!! Four weeks, 8 BIG climbs, completed!!

We had 35 riders out this week, two passed on Neild, four passed on Dean, not bad! 60 riders in total rode at least one segment. (Welcome two riders who joined this week!)

Congrats to all of you for taking on part, or all of the series! I didn't think there'd be much interest at all, so this is very cool to see. And thank you again to all who chipped in to help out with the series! 🤗

Please take a minute to check out the final results, and let me know ASAP if there are any issues!

Also a big thanks to our event supporters, there'll be some more awesome goodies given away in a couple days (just want to make sure all the results line up first).

Aaaand...the next Segment Challenge series, Season 8, will start in a week - it's Rider's Choice once more!!

Let's carry on with the updates..

Racing News

In local racing, today there was the Hammerfest MTB race in Parksville (results here), and the very fun Cherry Point road race course in the VCL series. I had a few words about what I think is a bit of a silly B race with 40+ racers...and only around 8 A racers. The B race was quite a bit faster than previous races, some of the top segment times were from B racers.. I won't moan about it further here, but check out my Strava post if you want to join in the conversation.. 😂

On the road we had the Vuelta a Burgos Feminas stage race, lots of action there over four stages! Very impressive climb from Marlen Reusser yesterday, and cleaned up in the TT today to win the overall handily.

The Giro's second week had some pretty engaging racing, and some unexpected upsets - Rogelic is now 4mins behind in 10th..whaaa? And Derek Gee is now in 5th just 3mins down. Fingers crossed the third week sees him hanging in there and continuing to move up!

Lots of MTB action as well, yesterday it was 1-2-3 in the W U23 World Cup Short Track at Nove Mesto (Czechia) with Ava & Bella Holmgren and Ella McPhee, Canadians owning the entire podium!! In the XC today, McPhee won by a pretty healthy lead, Ava and Bella were several minutes down, I'm assuming they had technical issues.

In the Elite raced, Jenn Jackson had solid starts, but drifted down under the T10 in both races, and Island rider Emilly Johnston was further back, but in the XC today seemed to move up from quite far back to finish 28th, and 4mins down.

Haven't watched the men's race, with the return of van der Poel, looking forward to seeing that!!

HOUSEKEEPING

Notes for the week:

One updated result from last week, did a manual timing for Kit due to going off course on Dean, and that bumped him up to tie for 3rd in the overall.

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! 😁

1 <- 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! 😊

Again, no tunes playing today, trying to catch up on all that bike racing! 🎶

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

Jen was back for revenge on Neild, pro rider Mara Roldan had taken her QOM, and wasn't gonna put up with that....and managed to reclaim it, by ONE SECOND!! She also put in an incredible ride on Matheson. And her times were the second fastest of any this week - WOW. Nice riding Jen! Sadly our other two A's didn't make it to the hills this week, would have been fun to see how they'd do. Jen had also just used the bike fit she won for Dockside Physio, wonder how much that played a part in this? 🤔😁

Over with the guys, the fastest times of the week were from Billy, who flew up both at pretty crazy speeds..boom! In the best of the rest news, Justin and Graham were pretty close, but not quite. Dave B and myself missed out on those podium spots. On Matheson, Graham was second fastest, ahead of Dave B, and it was just Dan B and myself to wrap it all up.

The B's

Gabrielle's winning streak continued, and took top times by a pretty hearty margin (only one B male managed to beat just one of her times!) We may have a future A here! Megan and Julia rounded out the podium on Neild, and they swapped positions on Matheson. It was great to see Kenzie back as well!!

Over with the guys, Mike C posted the fastest times once again, with Kevin trailing on both as well. Mark D rounded out the podium on Neild ahead of Joel C and Evan T (welcome back!) Joel C claimed the final podium spot on Matheson however, edging out Mark D and John F. Great to see Greg out as well!

The C's

On Matheson, Laura H had a fantastic ride, topping Kathryn and Kd. Kathryn got the better time on Matheson, it was probably closer to 17:40, but due to a technical issue she was given the time of 18min even, but that still put her in first! Kd was second, just seconds behind, and Camila made her first podium appearance, ahead of another newcomer this week, Mary!

Over with the C's, our biggest group, Tristan was fastest up Neild, tho only 5sec separated Rafael from Jamie. Sean and Chad were the ones to just miss out. Jamie had the upper hand on Matheson however, with Tristan and Rafael completing that podium, and Adam B and Tyler G not far off the mark. Great efforts by Kit, Bill R, Mike J and David R as well!!

DRAW 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!

This  week is our final week and so our final draw! There's some sweet prizes left, take a peek here, there are also some 'leftovers' from Season 7 of the Segment Challenge I'll add in (basically some gloves, bottles and a women's MTB/gravel top).

I'll be awarding these later in the week, along with a Final Report!

COMING IN A COUPLE WEEKS!

The Segment Challenge continues, starting June 2nd, and will run 8 weeks once more, with two segments posted each week.

Sign up is live on the site!

PLUS - I'm once again running the Rider's Choice theme, so *you* can suggest segments!!

Got a neat one in mind? Or is there one from a past season that you missed, or want to have another go at?

Then let me know! There's a form on the event page, look for the button near the top! We did this last summer, and I thought it was FANTASTIC. Looking forward to seeing your suggestions!

Here's that link: https://abouttheride.ca/victoria-segment-challenge/

Top of Neild with Gabrielle, enjoyed the 'fast' finish
of this one!

At the bottom of Neild, convenient spot to stash your heavier gear, or check Tiktok apparently! 😂

Forgot to get a shot atop Matheson, and wasn't going to go back, but caught an action shot of Gabrielle at the bottom.

It's the bottom of another update, once again thanks to all who joined in, so great to see the interest!!

Again, please check the final results and let me know ASAP if there are any corrections.

Don't forget to sign up for the next Segment Challenge, and send in your segment suggestions!!

Also, for those with gravel bikes or MTBs, I'm considering another Scrabblethon series in August - if this is of interest, hit reply and let me know!!

Watch for the final Climb Series update, and as always, safe and speedy riding! 🚲

- Dave

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