Another week down, and I don't know about you, but I kind of enjoyed the segments this week, I think the Bear Popper has been my favourite for the season!

This is the FINAL WEEK coming up! Well, it's actually TWO weeks - you can ride either or both segments any time this week, or the following week, to give everyone enough time to hit them both since they're a long way out of town. Going out with another bang on Mt. Matheson!!

Saw a bunch of you suffering up Lindholm today, no idea why you'd put yourselves through that, but nicely done!! 😂😭 Congrats to those in the Cowichan Crusher as well!

In Pro Cycling news, the women's Vuelta wrapped up today, and gotta say I really enjoyed the final 10-20km of each race, recommend watching if you haven't! We even had a Canadian win a stage! And sorry to spoil it, but Demi Vollering was pretty impressive. If you didn't know, I named my rescue hamster after her, and if you like cuteness in your timeline, you can follow Demi Smallering on Strava where I log her wheel time every night: https://www.strava.com/athletes/124740213

On the men's side, the Giro started on Friday, and local pro Riley Pickrell is making his first appearance in a Grand Tour! He's currently in a heated battle for the Lantern Rouge, but watch for him on the sprint stages..!

And if you haven't been on the site lately, there's a new button for Season 5 - the theme is Rider's Choice, and if you've got a segment or idea for a fun segment, hit the form and let me know! =)

HOUSEKEEPING

Notes for the week:

Nothing too dramatic 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! 😁

09 <- 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

Spinning the new Dandy Warhols - I haven't listened to the Dandys much, but it's not quite what I was expecting..! Kind of an electronic quirky mix....I'll have to go back and listen to some of their earlier stuff. A really weird thing is there's a bunch of spots that remind me of my best buddy from high school who did a lot of recording...! Anyway, not sure it's my thang, but it's not bad either. 🎶

THIS WEEK IN RIDES

The A's

Sadly none of the fast women hit the segments this week, but Katja, one of our regular speedsters, was down at the Tour De Bloom in WA this weekend, and had some great finishes! The results from the final stage (and overall) hasn't been posted on their results site, but she's had some great finishes, including 2nd in the crit last night (perhaps gave another local pro, Sarah Van Dam, a bit of a leadout by accident!), and I believe should take the Young Riders competition (U23) - congrats Kat!! Kimberly Chen was also down there keeping them honest, along with Mikayla! (Julian too, but crashed out, hopefully I got everyone!)

It was TIGHT this week on the men's side, Damian claimed the KOM on the Bear Popper, and 2nd-6th were just 4 seconds apart, but Nicky and Spencer were the fastest of the bunch. On Oldfield, Spencer earned the top spot with the fastest time posted overall, Nicky just 2sec off that, and Julian's effort claimed 3rd. 

The B's

Once again another really tight competition, with Tania, Renata and Maria 1-2-3 on both, but incredibly just 6 seconds separated them on Bear, and 9 seconds on Oldfield - how is that possible?? It's a real battle out there!!

I surprised myself this week, and took the top spot on both segments - I figured Oldfield was a good chance, but I guess Bear was suited to my strengths as well! Travis F and Glen were just a few seconds behind on Bear, and Glen and Joel W were just behind on Oldfield, with Dave B and Joel C only off by a few seconds as well! 

The C's

There's new competition in the C's with Janice, and she took the top spot on Bear! Suzy and Lani joined her on the podium. On Oldfield Suzy dropped a commanding time, with Jane edging out Janice by just one second as well!

Keith took top spot for the first time this week (I believe!) with a pretty blistering time! Evan and Kit were behind there, but it was Evan, Keith than Kit on Oldfield, and Mike was the only other C this week, where'd everybody go? Hope to see you back for the final segments!! 😊 

BONUSES & CURSES

Damian was the lone KOM this week!

• Early Bird was Leo, who set a fast early time!
• We actually got a secret time of 4:39 on Oldfield, which went to Glen!
• My socials were quiet, no tags this week (or socialite points!) (post a shot of your ride on IG or FB and tag @AboutTheRideCA for a chance for 5pts each week!)
• The Local Legend curse was also unclaimed!
• No Yellow Jersey curse as usual!

PRIZES!

Prizes this week are the remaining Goldstream Bicycles Gift Cards, and a few other ones that are left over!

I'll be giving away 6 of them, and I'll pull 2 names from A, B & C:

Leo Donnecke
Nicky Begley

Greg Goforth
Tania Johnson

Mike Hofmann
Janice Dellaviola

Congrats! I'll email you all privately on Monday with details, note that the first to reply to that email will get their top prize choices!

For this upcoming Week #10, prizes will be all the 'big ticket' items, as well as a few remaining items!

NOTE: There's be a two prize limit until this week (your name can't be drawn more than twice), but that resets for the final! ALSO - the TOP 3 OVERALL in each category will get an extra 'draw' (no podium prizes this season), and since it's reset, everyone who rides next week will be eligible to win!

As always a huge thanks to all our event supporters! Take a peek at all of them here:

https://abouttheride.ca/victoria-segment-challenge-season-4-prize-list/

Week #10 - May 6th - May 19th - Do the Matheson!

It's the final week(s), and it's a big one! Since it's so far out of town, I'm giving all y'all TWO weeks to ride these two - feel free to ride them any time in the next two weeks, ride one this week, and the other the next week, or ride both next week, whatever works for you - and some really cool draw prizes as well!! Let's take a look:

Segment 10A Name: Mt Matheson Proper
Deets: 2.85km, 215m elevation gain.
This is an existing segment, QOM is Jill Moffatt with a 9:05, KOM is Rob Britton with a 7:31 & LL is 🌈 Paskeet🌈 with 10 efforts!
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/2315307

As promised, we've got a BIG one, and it's a ways out of town. It's the mighty Mount Matheson!! A bunch of you have already ridden it, but for the uninitiated, it's a one of the longer local climbs. The road surface was a bit rough last time I was out that way, but otherwise prepare yourselves for a long grind! 💪💪

Segment 10B Name: full seedtree
Deets: 1.52km, 135m elevation gain.
This is an existing segment, QOM is MelRad C with a 5:01, KOM is Braden Kersey with a 3:31 & LL is Jim Nelson with 1 effort!
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/11736148

This is one last 'repeat'; I learned about Seedtree back in the OG KOMpetition, and LOVED this road. I did it on my CX bike then, but am looking forward to hitting it on my road bike this time. It's nice and buff pavement, super quiet, and overall a pretty reasonable grade. And it's just around the corner from Mt Matheson. I imagine both the KOM and QOM will be claimed on Seedtree as well!

Happy riding!! 🚵‍♀️

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

Action shot!
Definitely not a staged photo
of Julian coming out off of the trail!

Right after we went on Oldfield
a 'speed trap' was set up!
I hit about 60kph on my effort. 😂

Thanks for joining for another week, I can't believe we're just about done again!? Have fun on the final segments, and don't forget to submit your own segment ideas!

Safe and speedy riding all! 🚲

- Dave

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