Hello readers and riders, another season is complete! We’ve finished off the 4th Season in Spring 2024 with a blast, and here are a bunch of the highlights!!

We were back on the roads after the Fall 2023 Gravel Edition, Season 4 ran from March 4th to May 12th (correction – 19th since we threw in a bonus week!) That gave us 10 weeks of segments, 20 segments total, and as usual a number of QOMs and KOMs were claimed!

Some quick stats:

• Number signed up: nearly 100
• Number in the Strava group: over 230
• Number who rode at least one S4 segment: 64
• Male:female split: 46:18

Special Recognition – The HardCore!

We set a new road season record with 9 riders who made it out every single week (four more than any Road season), and I’d be remiss not to give a special shout out to Dan Blackwell, Spencer Floyd, Tania Johnson, Glennon Rosenbloom, Ryan Taylor, Travis Orr, Jane Logan, Suzy Sylvester and Kit St. John for this achievement! (I also made it out each week, but not sure if I should count! 😉)

More Neat Stats

Here’s a few charts from our sign-up as well (note we had 96 people sign up, but a bunch never joined in – hope to see you next season!!)

The series welcomed a bunch of new riders, and most still came from previous Road Seasons.

Our series has a great (for cycling) ratio for gender, and is perhaps more inviting than other cycling events, and a bit more convenient for many since they aren’t locked into a day and time to participate.

And a great range of categories were filled up!

The Series

Many are already familiar with the road format – 2 segments posted each week, but this year we also featured two Pre-Season Bonus Segments, which gave riders a bonus they could cash in later in the season (for example if they missed or botched a segment, they could claim 30pts for that week!)

The segments took riders all over the place, through Gordon Head, Mill Hill, the Robin Hill neighbourhood (look it up!), Granville & Hastings made an appearance again, THREE different roads up Bear Hill, Royal Oak, a failed segment up Bear Mtn (due to heavy construction it was neutralized, a first!), Royal Bay, 10 Mile Point, and an EPIC finale up Mt. Matheson in Sooke! There was a wide range of hills and lengths, plus several speedy segments. You can review the full archive of segments here.

Everyone who took part gets a big thank you and congrats, but we have to focus on the top of the leaderboards, and here’s our season end breakdown!

The A’s

Beginning with the female side, we had a total of 6 A’s hit at least one segment, with Katja simply riding each segment for the first four weeks, but that was enough for her to claim the series! Sophia put in some solid efforts, and we welcomed back Jen and Sam who also logged some solid times, and newcomers to the series Emma and Kimberly also hit at least one segment – thanks for representing, hope to see you all back for more!!

In the end, the final podium is:

1. K 🙂 (384pts)
2. Sofia Donnecke (317pts)
3. Samantha Hoft (205pts)

Over on the Open side, we had a record turn-out and a very competitive field, especially towards the end! Julian came out swinging, dominating the first four weeks, claiming several KOMs, and taking on a huge lead, but consistency paid off for Spencer, Dan B and Nicky, who claimed the final podium. It was great to see some familiar names back for a few segments, and Adam W moved up to A from B, and was holding his own quite well, finishing 5th overall! Newcomer Dylan put in some great times at the start, but was MIA for the remainder of the season, and another newcomer was Leo Donnecke, who made a late-season drive dropping some solid watts. (If the name is familiar, it’s because he’s the little brother of Sofia on the women’s side!)

I’m betting the upcoming summer season might be even more exciting, but let’s stay present and recognize our final Open A podium is:

1. Spencer Floyd (927pts)
2. Dan Blackwell (840pts)
3. Nicky Begley (806pts)

The B’s

Unfortunately our B’s only had four female riders this season, a big drop from previous seasons in what had been a REALLY competitive field! I looked forward to these results each week, and while we still had a GREAT battle with these ladies, would have been nice to see a few more names in there!

The season started with Tania and Maria duking it out, often trading positions and we could see some patterns in rider strengths… Week #3 we welcomed Renata Troc, who fit in perfectly and gave these two a good challenge for the rest of the season – would have been interesting to see how it’d play out if she’d made the first two weeks! And the lovely Shannon B made it out for one week, hopefully we’ll see more of her (and our other B’s) in Season 5!

Our final Female B podium is:

1. Tania Johnson (995pts) – highest point total in the series!!
2. Maria Morano (859pts)
3. Renata Troc (774pts)

The Open B field as usual was our largest, with 24 riders, and it was so great to see so many claim top spots each week! Glennon has been with us since the start, but this season was the first time he made it out each week, and that helped earn him 2nd place in the series!! Separated by just 10pts, Travis O claimed 3rd over Travis F, but I gotta say Travis made an INCREDIBLE comeback given that he missed the first week and made up 90pts by simply dominating most weeks. I ended up on the top step, I feel a bit weird in that position, but I’m also not going to make it easy for these guys!! 😂

Lots of highlights, Joel W might have been up there as well, were it not for also missing a week, Josh D, Ryan T and Alan M had a fantastic season with some really great rides!! Lots of other riders deserve accolades, but I’ve only got so much space and time, but appreciate you all taking part!

Here are those top results:

1. Dave Shishkoff (925pts)
2. Glennon Rosenbloom (880pts)
3. Travis Orr (865pts)

The C’s

Our female category had a solid turnout, with familiar names like Suzy and Lani continuing to make podium appearances this week, but we also had some newcomers like Jane, Shannon M, and Bonnie appear regularly! Janice was another late-comer with a solid final week, and Ruth and Aileen also were welcome additions!

But in the end, there could only be three, and they were:

1. Suzy Sylvester (992pts) – highest point total in the series!!
2. Jane Logan (898pts)
3. Lani * (784pts)

On the side of the guys, we had another great turnout, and Kit held the lead, battling with Tyler G, but in the end newcomer Evan T upset the bunch overcoming everyone with solid rides the last 9 weeks! Donnie and Keith weren’t far off, missing a few weeks each, and Peter S, Mike H and Craig S also made some surprise appearances! It was great seeing Mikael, Russel, Peter F and Scott H out as well, although they couldn’t ride as many segments as the rest.

Out of 12 riders, here’s our Top 3:

1. Evan Thomas (921pts)
2. Kit St. John (877pts)
3. Tyler Galts (771pts)

That completes our Season Podiums!

Note in the scoring sheet the tabs at the bottom to flip between overall and individual weeks. If a PDF is preferred, simply click here! Here is the full link to the GoogleDoc. (You can view the Notes each week for the Bonus and Curse details, which doesn’t show up in the table below.)

Finishing Up!

If anyone wants to re-live Season 4, here’s an archive of all the segments.

This was another fun season, I’m genuinely inspired to see so many take part, and go out there and give it a go. There are new ride groups and friendships forming around these, and whether it’s to go out and check out some new roads, or challenge yourself and your peers, it’s extremely cool to see so many taking part. Thank you!!! 💖

See you out there for Season 5 (and beyond!!)

– Dave

PS – Please do leave a comment below sharing your experience! What did you like about Season 4? Favourite segments or trails? Least favourite? 😂 Make some new riding friends? Let’s hear your thoughts!