So You Think You Can Climb?
Then Victoria’s first ‘reverse enduro’ is for you!
?MTB vs GRAVEL BIKE?
/ O P E R A T I O N / S E G M E N T E D / R E A L I T Y /
Then Victoria’s first ‘reverse enduro’ is for you!
?MTB vs GRAVEL BIKE?
/ O P E R A T I O N / S E G M E N T E D / R E A L I T Y /
The Highlands Gravel EndurUPtor – November 2024
UPDATE: The event is complete, check out the final report here! Sign up for our emails, or keep an eye on this space, I’m sure we’ll see this event again in 2025!
Similar to the Victoria Segment Challenge, three segments have been posted, and you ride them – fast, or for fun!
A great way to find new trails and routes, as well as challenge yourself and your friends – make it a group ride! Tracking is done via Strava, ride when convenient for you.
How It Works
You have all of November to give it a go! Final day is Dec 1st.
Three gravel climbs are posted. You have to ride all three in the same day. The ride between climbs doesn’t count for time.
Ride it for fun, or go for a fast time.
There are A, B and C categories, Open and Female. The ride needs to be on Strava (for tracking purposes.)
I’ll also track bike types, so this will be an interesting battle between MTB and gravel/cyclocross! Which will win?!
Ride as many times as you want, your fastest time is the one that counts! But remember, all three in one day! You can in theory get results on three different days, but I will be checking to ensure all three climbs are ridden each date that shows up! Relegation will occur if this rule is broken.
Safety is a huge priority of course, and all efforts are made to select quiet roads/trails that are low traffic, but please do not take any unnecessary risks, this is just for fun!
EndurUPtor – Rules & Sign-Up
A few rules to try to keep things fun for all:
- 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, December 1st.
- Please stick with the type of bike selected (gravel, MTB, etc), the same bike should be ridden for all segments!
- All three segments must be ridden on the logged date(s) for the times to count.
- The TIMED SEGMENTS 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.)
- Bikes: since they are on trails, anything goes! Road bikes may work for some segments, but you’re better off on a gravel or cyclocross bike, and MTBs (hardtails or full-suspension) are part of the challenge as well!
- 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. Strava-wise, you probably have a collection of KOMs, and fairly regularly find yourself in the T10 for segments when going full-out.
- Open C’s should be below 3w/kg, Female C’s usually under 2.6w/kg for 1hr FTP.
- B’s should find themselves in-between these. You’re fit, but not terribly gifted with endurance genetics.
- If unfamiliar, or unsure, just add a note. I will move riders around if necessary.
And yes, it’s totally free!
To join the EndurUPtor:
NOTE: Sign-up is closed, but the event will return! Sign up for the Victoria Segment Challenge email updates to keep up-to-date on these events!
Step 1: Sign-Up Form (Google Docs form)
Step 2: Join our About The Ride Strava Group (This makes it easy for me to sort our riders out on each segment.)
Sorry, but failure to follow these two steps will result in omission from results.
Weekly Updates: Each week on Sunday evening I’ll update the results table and send out an email and post in the Strava group an update with a quick summary of the competition as it progresses.
Any questions? Hopefully most questions are answered, but feel free to send a note!
Our Strava Group Stats!
🔥🔥🔥😲🤯🔥🔥🔥
Here are your three segments! Also be sure to check the ‘Routing’ section below for suggestions of connecting the three trails.
Segment #1 – To End an Ancient Way of Life
Deets: 4.37km, 205m elevation gain.
The QOM is/was Claire Townsend with a 19:20,KOM is/was Marc-André Fortier with a 15:10.
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/29430574
Things start off in Thetis, with a long but relatively tame climb beginning at the junction of Scafe and Bellamy, and then work your way up Bellamy to Davies Rd where there’s a gate – you actually jump on Davies for a short jaunt, and make a right into the driveway. Although it says Private Property, this is how you access the rest of the trail and is a common access point. Please do be respectful of anyone you see.
Once you’re back on the trail, it turns into pretty smooth singletrack aka Frank’s Trail for some time, then a branch to the right that takes you over to the Mt. Work Connector (formerly Kallie’s Trail), which spits you out near the top of Munn Rd! Segment #1 complete!
Segment #2 – Willis Fire Road – Ascent
Deets: .90km, 170m elevation gain.
The QOM is/was Steph Martinek with an 8:26,KOM is/was Julian Cameron with a 6:43.
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/16865498
This will be one of the toughest 90m of riding you’ll find around Victoria! And to top it off, the trail will probably be layered in maple leaves – icing on the proverbial cake!
The segment starts near the Mackenzie Bight in the Gowland Todd, and there’s not much to it. It’s a grind. Many may walk this. It’s not called a challenge for nothing! Pie plate gearing recommended!
Segment #3 – Grow Up and Blow Away – Ross-Durrance to top of Regional Trail
Deets: 2.09km, 130m elevation gain.
The QOM is/was Suzy Snyder with a 9:03,KOM is/was josiah middaugh with a 7:10.
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/38068654
Our final segment takes us into Hartland, starting at the Ross-Durrance entrance, and heads up the Regional Trail to the top.
Not as long or much elevation as the other two segments, but there are a few steep/loose sections to keep you on your toes!
Suggested Routing
UPDATE: Here are two route files you can choose from (thanks Zlatan!) Here’s one on the Garmin site, and also a Strava route.
Here are some tips to making this a fun trail loop!
We start in Thetis, and there are a few options to get here. You can simply head up Highland Road to the entrance at the end, or loop around Phelps-Bellamy for a longer trail day!
After Segment #1 is complete, you can make a right on Munn, and roll down about 100m, and on the left is another trail entrance – it’s a fun one, mostly downhill, that crosses over to Ross-Durrance, here’s a reference segment for that: https://www.strava.com/segments/14941734
From there, make a right on Ross-Durrance, and (safely!) bomb down to the Mt. Work parking lot, and make a left on the McKenzie Bight Trail that takes you down to the water. It’s just a steady descent all the way down.
Enjoy a short break there, because Segment #2 begins a bit further down the trail!
When you’re back on the road at the top of Willis Point after Segment #2, once again, make a right and just bomb down Willis Point and then another right onto Ross-Durrance, and the final segment begins there!
When Segment #3 is complete, if you’re a sucker for punishment, you can head back up Ross-Durrance and do that portion in reverse, or continue into Hartland, and enjoy some of your favourite trails there.
Happy riding!! 🚵♀️
Extra Tip: Strava for some dumb reason doesn’t let you save Segments as Routes. But here’s a website where you can enter the segment, and download the GPX file so you can ride it as a route: https://www.doogal.co.uk/SegmentExplorer (Thanks Spencer for the tip!!) Also, if you’re ever trying to find out when you rode a specific road, Find That Ride is an amazing website: https://www.findthatride.com/activitymap
Results!
See below for the results! Note the bike types, GR = Gravel, CX = Cyclocross, HT = Hardtail MTB, FS = Full Suspension MTB.
Please contact me if there are any errors. If a PDF is preferred, simply click here! Here is the full link to the GoogleDoc.
Scoring
For the the three timed segments, points will be awarded this way for the A, B & C fields:
1st – 50pts
2nd – 47pts
3rd – 45pts
4th – 43pts
5th – 41pts
6th – 40pts (and one point spread beyond 6th, to 30pts, which all below this will receive.)
Help Get Word Out!
Ain’t this more fun with more people? Help get word out! Follow our social channels, and share posts, mention what you’re doing on your Strava rides, invite friends to sign up and join you, get your clubs and bike shops to get word out!
Anything Confusing?
Fire over a note on the contact page if you’ve got any questions, ideas, suggestions, etc!
Newsletter & Email Updates
Sign up to the right for our periodic updates about clinics, events, and other notable activities! (Probably just a few emails a year, and you can unsubscribe with a click any time!)