Another fun week of segments, or at least I enjoyed them both! I didn't expect the segment from the ferry to be quite so fast, and Torin was just short enough that it wasn't too much of a grind.

So first things first - another reminder the theme is Rider's Choice, and while we're featuring one this week, there's only been a handful of submissions! Look to your left, look to your right, now look in a mirror - none of these people are likely submitting segments! 😂 If I don't get a few more this week, I'm throwing in Petworth again!! (And if you don't know Petworth, you really don't want to!😭)

A huge thanks to all who've chipped in, I'm grateful for your support for this series and the resources I organize on the site. Thank you!! 🥰

A reminder if you know any 11-13yr old girls that are into cycling - check out the new Girl's Club which has several rides a week, encouraging girls this age to get into cycling and stick with physical activity: https://www.instagram.com/tripleshot.girlsclub/

This week's segment are out in the Highlands, but I think there's more climbing involved getting to the segments, rather than the segments themselves.. 🤔

Racing News

Locally we had the infamous Newton Heights VCL race on Wednesday. If unfamiliar there's a solid climb, into a fast descent, which you repeat VERY quickly, over and over. Haven't seen results tho... This Wednesday is the Seabrook crit, last time there was a women's category, but haven't heard back if that's happening again this week. I'll promote it on FB & IG if I do hear more!

Yesterday was the X Fondo at Whistler, saw a few familiar names out there!

It was also Nanaimo Unpaved today, and the results are here. Congrats to segment rider Adam Lawrence for winning his age group! Lower numbers than usual..but a lot going on, it was also the Canadian Gravel National Champs today too, local rider Garth Campbell won his age group, and again, a few familiar names in the results. The women's Elite race looked like it was close between Gold and Silver, and on the men's side looked like a 4-up sprint. Results for that here as well.

Lots of pro racing! The Women's Tour de Suisse had some great action, although I haven't seen today's stage yet.... The Criterium du Dauphine was a bit of a preview of what we'll see at the Tour de France and had quite a lot of action. The Men's Tour de Suisse started today in pretty gross weather. No real highlights for Canadian riders that I'm aware of tho.

HOUSEKEEPING

Notes for the week:

Rich Long, great to have you back, but please sign up!

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! 😊

Been listening to the new Arcade Fire album, Pink Elephant. Nothing is quite standing out too much after a couple spins, other than what seems like underwhelming production quality, but that's kind of their thing I think. Will keep listening and perhaps report back with more! 🎶

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

Sadly no A females this week! Hopefully we'll see you tackle these Highland climbs!

All our guys were out however, and Ethan made his first clean sweep of the podium, posting the fastest times on both segments! On the Ferry segment, I was just 2sec behind in 2nd, topping my buddy Dave B in 3rd by another 3 seconds. Julian and Travis just missed out! Torin had Julian in 2nd with Travis sharing the podium. Good efforts from Dan B, and nice to see Rich back as well!

The B's

Gabrielle went full beast mode this week, taking both QOMs, and 5th & 4th fastest times overall! Julia and Renata rounded out the podium on the A segment, with newcomer Sarah P and Kathleen just off the benchmark. The order was exactly the same on Torin, and good to have Sarah D in there as well!

The guys groups saw something unprecedented - THREE riders tied in first place, with David K, Josh and Todd all riding 2:42. (Dan B in the A's also rode the same time!) Greg G bucked the trend 11 seconds behind on the Ferry segment, and Jamie C 3rd. Evan and Joel C also tied for 4th, and Greg R was 5th. On Torin, there was only one 1st place, and that was Todd once again! His time there was actually the 3rd fastest time overall. Jamie C and Josh rounded out the podium, with David K and Greg G a few seconds off. There was ANOTHER tie for 11th as well with Ryan T and Scott H - funny segments!

The C's

Kathryn was our lone C this week, so full points to her!

Hobbers swept the podium this week as well by a pretty solid margin. Sean was second, and Kit and Tyler tied for 3rd! Chad, Mike J and Early Bird David R off the podium. Sean and Kit were also next-fastest on Torin.

BONUSES & CURSES

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

No KOM this week, tho Ethan was seconds off, and Gabby claimed both QOMs this week!

• Early Bird was David R once more!
• No secret times this week, tho both off by only a few seconds again.
• 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 claimed by Kathleen on the Ferry segment.
• 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 Cycles West, who have a nice assortment of goodies on offer! The Google randomizer has decided the following are worthy of a draw prize this week:

Ryan Taylor
Kathleen Gallagher
Teddy Grosson
Travis Orr
Sarah Pullman
Joel Crocker

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

Our prize page is now live on the site, more to come, but for now take a peek!

Week #3 - June 16th - June 22nd - High Up in the Highlands

It's our first Rider's Choice segment, both Dan and Dave B sent in Finlayson Arm, so you can thank them for the segments in the Highlands this week! 😂 Pack your climbing legs, we've got a couple uphill segments coming up.

Segment 3A Name: The Roundtree Finlayson hill
Deets: 1.93km, 101m elevation gain.
This is an existing segment, QOM is Steph Martinek with a 6:22 & KOM is Elijah Buffalo with a 5:03, and the LL is Mike Wulder with 1 effort!
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/39343313

It's our return to Finlayson Arm Road! Not the nasty side, tho this is still a good little kick in the pants. This is a different segment from the ones we've used previously, and goes up a bit further than we have in the past. Watch for the fence made of skiis, a neat little landmark!

Segment 3B Name: Millstream Tail
Deets: 4.25km, 126m elevation gain.
This is an existing segment, QOM is Alyssa Serviss with a 10:03 & KOM is Louis FL with a 8:05, and LL is Daryl Wood with w efforts.
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/13002871

Here's one I haven't done fully! Many of us have been up to Caleb Pike, and competed at the local circuit race, but there's this mysterious road that most of us have turned off of dozens of times....now's our chance to check it out! Looks like the worst of the climb is at the start, and rolls up fairly gently. But we shall see!

Suggested Routing

Probably not the easiest area of town for most to get to. The more direct route would be up and over Munn, or a longer but arguably easier way would be up Millstream. You can take this little wiggle I often recommend to get to Millstream off the Goose via the Mill Bay neighbourhood: https://www.strava.com/routes/3107750435997229492 - once you hit Millstream, just start heading north, then pick your poison with which you'll ride first!

Happy riding!! 

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

One segment down with the weeks
QOM! Didn't know it at the time,
but a little reward for some hard work!

The Torin turn-off, the residents were
probably wondering why so many cyclists
were headed up there, full gas! 😂

Hope everyone's enjoying the warmer weather, my legs are definitely a LOT happier when it's above 20C, tho not everyone seems to appreciate the *cough* 'heat'!

Reminder to check out @AboutTheRideCA on both FB & IG, I try to post helpful updates there fairly regularly!

Thanks as always for taking a peek at my ramblings, safe and speedy riding all! 🚲

- Dave

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