The final week is over!! Great to see nearly 30 out for one last hurrah! I thought they were both pretty fun, a climb with two good kicks, and then a nice fast one that's a bit longer.

I'll just be focusing this week's results here, and will post a final blog post with all the series results in the next couple days.

My Cyclocross Skills School clinic series had it's first day today, fantastic bunch of peeps learning to get on and off their bikes quickly and efficiently, clear barriers and more! There's still two weeks left, the next two Sundays (and then Cross on the Rock starts the following week!) Details and sign-up are here: https://abouttheride.ca/cyclocross-skills-school/

A big round of applause to all of you, thanks again for being part of this!!! 🤩

HOUSEKEEPING

Notes for the week:

Once again no errors last week, yay! 

Please do review the OVERALL results, if you see any issues, please let me know ASAP!!

02 <- THIS MANY WEEKS WITHOUT AN ERROR 🤣

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

SPONSORS AD

This week's sponsor is the new KeepDopersWinning.com race series. They say:

Just because an athlete cheated, shouldn't they continue to profit from their name, which they worked so hard for?

We're organizing sports competitions to celebrate their achievements, and keep their names in the limelight!

Coming soon will be the Jacques Demers Power Lifting Championships - why should getting caught with 400 vials of testosterone set anyone back? That's just not reasonable!

We're also proud to be hosting the Ben Johnson Sprint Invitational, and will be action packed featuring many of the top sprinters of the world!

Finally, join us for Ryder Hesjedal's Giro de Canada! You may not even know he's an admitted doper and cheat, but surprise, he is! (Ryder only had to come out because that jerk Rasmussen wrote a book about it, and it would have looked even worse if he didn't bring it up days before the release of the book!)

Never mind the ethical ramifications of cheating others in fair sport, or denying other Canadian cyclists an opportunity to race clean, Ryder was just doing what everyone else was doing, including another local rider, Seamus McGrath, and doing drugs! What's wrong with that? Why should we expect better behaviour from top athletes than we would from a 6yr old?

He won the Giro d'Italia thanks to his years of training (never mind the completely unknown period of doping since he refuses to actually talk about it, and the prolonged long-term benefits), and why should he be condemned for failing to take any meaningful anti-doping position afterwards? Who in the world thinks people should be accountable for their actions? Especially in 2023?!! TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP!!!!!

Sorry about that! Anyway..

We're also proud to let you know that Lance Armstrong will also be attending the Giro de Canada, another big name in cycling loved by all!! (And we won't mention how we're paying him $500,000 to attend, and that's part of the reason your entry is $1800. These things are totally unrelated!)

It's up to you! Help keep the strongest athletes ever in the headlines! Save 0.00001% on all event purchases using hashtag #KeepDopersWinners!

SOUNDTRACK NOTES

Spotted a new release from Neil Young, and Chrome Dreams is actually a 'missing album' from the 70s that's finally been released (think Rust Never Sleeps era). No new tunes, but some pretty cool renditions of songs fans are familiar with. Sedan Delivery is one of my favourite songs, and this features a much more tame version, with some different lyrics, pretty interesting..! Might be worth a spin....Marlon Brando, Pocahontas and me... 🎶

THIS WEEK IN RIDES

Awww - it's the final weekly report! Here's the highlights for the week, and as mentioned I'll be posting an 'overall' season summary on the blog.

The A's

More fantastic rides from our A riders this week! On Cherry Tree, Laura aka The Squaremeat add another QOM to her stack, with yet another time that was among the fastest overall, and on a second go after a technical on the first attempt! Jen Ward wasn't far behind, and Sam Hoft also rode herself onto the podium. Over on Santa Clara, Katja aka K :) set the road ablaze, posting the 3rd fastest time overall, just 3s off the KOM! Jen and Sam shared the podium as well, both with speedy times under 2mins.

Louis was the only guy out this week, and was one of several to hold the KOM this week, as it traded hands several times!

The B's

Very close times once again, but Laura finished 3s ahead of Maria on Cherry Tree, and Shannon rounded out the podium not far behind. But when things are looking down, Shannon turns it around, and put down an unbeatable time! Laura and Maria actually ended up riding the exact same time, tying for second on the final segment.

The KOM was claimed by Travis Field, with an awesome 2:21! Colin wasn't far behind to claim 2nd, and a late effort by Adam W collected 3rd place points. I have to admit, Santa Clara is my type of segment - fast and not too long... I came up a second short of the KOM, doh! I gave it another try the next day, but was a couple seconds short. Glennon, who tied me on the climb, got 2nd here as well, and Travis F collected one final podium spot with 3rd!

The C's

Kathy came out guns blazing, and took the top spot on the climb, followed by Suzy and Heidi. Suzy also earned some extra points being the Early Bird! On the faster segment, positions were reversed, with Suzy taking the top spot, followed by Heidi and Kathy, but barely more than 10s separated them all!

Finally, our fellas put in one final fight, and Todd once again took both top steps! Juan's climbing chops earned second, and Kit and Tyler G tied for 3rd! Tyler G may have actually taken the top time on Santa Clara, but the segment wasn't properly triggered (after he rode it the wrong way the first time!), so I had to do a 'manual' time and awarded 2min even, but that was still good enough for 2nd, and Juan claimed the final podium step this week!

BONUSES & CURSES

QOMs were split between Laura and Kat, and Travis F claimed the only KOM.

Early bird was Suzy, and the secret time of 3:37 for the climb was earned by Juan! 2:22 was the Santa Clara time, but no one quite rode it. Socialite points went to Dave B! (Which actually bumped him up a place in the overall!) And we thank Ken M for his service in claiming the LL curse on the climb!

PRIZES!

It's getting late so I'll send out the prizes tomorrow, sorry folks!

As always a huge thanks to all our supporters, check out the prize list!!

https://abouttheride.ca/victoria-segment-challenge-season-2-prize-list/

Here's Jen finishing
the climb on Bossi...phew!

The end of Santa Clara..

...and the end of Season 2!!

So that's a wrap on our regular weekly updates! I'll have a follow up post in the next day or so with the season tallies, as well as the prizes! (If you haven't signed up for the special distribution this week, check the prize page ASAP, you might be able to still register!) In the meantime, take a peek at the totals and let me know if anything is amiss!

Don't forget Season 3 will be a gravel version, and starts September 11th, I'll have a sign-up for that shortly!

Thanks again for joining in, safe and speedy riding all! 🚲

- Dave

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