Join Victoria’s all-new hill climb series!

It runs four weeks, from April 28th – May 25th!

Every week features two hills, all you have to do is ride them. Any day, any time. Upload your results to Strava by 6pm each Sunday (when the results are collected.)

A, B & C categories, go for a top time, or make it a personal challenge to complete! Ride any or all, it’s up to you!

Download poster PDF

The Rules

A few rules to try to keep things fun for all:

• There’s a full week to complete segments, ride any time you wish, as many times as you wish, your fastest result will be the one that counts.
• Make sure your ride(s) is ‘public’ on Strava so I can see it in the segment list.
• The hard cut-off is 6pm Sunday when I pull the results from the segments, if you upload after that, tough luck!
• These are to be SOLO efforts! You are not allowed help! Cannot draft another rider during any portion of a segment. Any riders found to be cheating will be removed from the competition. (It’s fine being side-by-side with a friend however, since there is no drafting benefit.)
• Do not edit your Strava ride files. Do not crop your ride files to the segments. There must be a ‘substantial’ amount of time and distance before and after each segment, so it’s part of a ‘ride’, and not an edited/cropped file of only the segment. This is supposed to be a fun cycling challenge, not a hack-a-thon.
• Safety safety safety – please follow the rules of the road!

There are Female and Open categories, and you can select A, B or C. A typically are pretty fit folk, C’s are definitely on the more casual end of the spectrum, or just planning to ride the segments as a fun destination or goal each week!

• A’s should know who you are! For Open A, if your 1hr FTP has been over 4w/kg, this is for you. For Female A, above 3.6w/kg.
• Open C’s should be below 3w/kg, Female C’s under 2.6w/kg for 1hr FTP.
• B’s should find themselves in-between these.
• If unfamiliar, or unsure, just add a note. I will move riders around if necessary. Riders can upgrade during the ‘season’, but will lose half their points.

And yes, it’s totally free!

The Climbs

Below are the climbs, and which ones you can expect each week!

Week #1 – Apr 28th – May 4th – PKOLS/Mt Doug & Observatory

It’s the worst of climbs, it’s the best of climbs…

We’re starting with the shorter climbs, Mount Doug is a brute, being the steepest of all our climbs, but it’s shorter.

And we’ve also got the Observatory climb, which is the easiest in the series, and we’ll limit it to the stop sign, so people don’t have to ride after hours (you’re not allowed to ride to the top during their business hours.)

Segment #1A Title: Mt. Doug – 0m to 1500m markers climb
Deets: 1.46km, ~150m elevation gain, average 11%.
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/6425304

It’s a classic! If you haven’t been up PKOLS before, don’t start full gas – it gets steep pretty quick, and doesn’t ease off.

Segment #1B Name: OBSERVATORY – working hours
Deets: 1.58km, 96m elevation gain, average 6.1%.
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/31791702

This is the easiest, most chill of the climbs, it’s easy to pace, give it a good go!

Week #2 – May 5th – May 11th – Munn & Bear Mtn (south side)

Now we’re cookin’! Munn is the biggest climb, with the highest elevation gain of any of the climbs (249m), but Bear Mountain won’t be too much easier.

Segment #2A Title: Munn’s, Prospect to top
Deets: 7.36km, 249m elevation gain, average 2.7%. (That doesn’t seem right!)
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/1125679

Munn is the biggun’! And I’ll make it a bit easier, and just start it on Prospect rather than Burnside!

Oh, and the grammar fiend in me has to emphasize it’s just “Munn Rd”, there’s no “s” on the end. 😉

Segment #2B Name: Big Bear Invite Segment
Deets: 4.53km, 208m elevation gain, average 4.2%.
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/31446758

Not nearly as long, but more of a grunt than Munn, once again, we’re going all the way to the top! Please do be careful in the traffic circles, this is mainly for fun!

Week #3 – May 12th – May 18th – Willis Point & Dean Park (Segment Challenge Edition)

Two more tough ones – don’t really need to say that I guess! 😂😭

Segment #3A Title: wach-u talkin bout ..
Deets: 2.41km, 165m elevation gain, average 6.5%.
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/21606356

Willis is a tough one…it’s a tough one to get to as well, but I guess it’s a good warm-up!

Segment #3B Name: Please point to the segment that hurt you. 🤢 (Another way up Dean)
Deets: 3.98km, 219m elevation gain, average 5.1%.
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/37264076

I devised this segment as a season finale for the Segment Challenge series last year, it starts on West Saanich, and includes Ravenview, which is pretty nasty on its own – enjoy!!

Week #4 – May 19th – 25th – Neild & Mount Matheson

This is it! Many have ridden Neild before, and Matheson isn’t too terrible, except it is probably a pretty long way out for most!

Segment #4A Title: Full Neild Rd
Deets: 4.12km, 242m elevation gain, average 4.5%.
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/2027343

Going to the top of Neild, not where the VCL climb ends, for those who’ve done this climb in the past. I always look forward to that middle part….

Segment #4B Name: Mt Matheson Proper
Deets: 2.85km, 215m elevation gain, average 7.3%.
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/2315307

Okay, maybe it is a bit tougher than the others. At least it was resurfaced fairly recently!

The Results

You’ve put in the time, let’s see how it’s going!

Below are the times and results! Note the tabs at the bottom to flip between overall and individual weeks. Please contact me if there are any errors. If a PDF is preferred, simply click here! Here is the full link to the GoogleDoc.

Event Supporters & Draw Prizes

Some goodies for your efforts – if you’re lucky!

A big ‘ole thank you to the businesses below for contributing to our weekly draw! Thanks to them, we’ll have a few goodies to award participants each week.