Gravel come, gravel go – our final season of 2024 was another fun season of trail riding!
For those unfamiliar, the Spring and Summer Segment Challenge seasons are on the road, and in the Fall we go offroad, primarily to explore different areas, and (hopefully!) learn some new trails and routes, but 1 in 4 segments were also Timed/Challenge segments to keep the competition alive!
Some quick stats:
- Number signed up: 60
- Number in the Strava group: over 280
- Number who rode at least one S6 segment: 51
- Male:female split: 35:16
Special Recognition – The HardCore!
This year we tied the season record with 11 riders who made it out every single week (on the road, it was only 10), and I’d be remiss not to give a special shout out to Dave Bitschy, Megan Thomas, Tania Johnson, Mark Devitt, Markus K, Anne Edwards, Lani *, Tanya Binette, Gary Peever, Greg Goforth and Mark Baker for this achievement! (I also made it out each week, but not sure if I should count! 😉)
More Neat Stats
As part of the sign-up, I’ve got a few questions, and here are the more interesting responses:
I goofed on the question originally, didn’t have ‘First Time’ as an option, so a number of people selected ‘Season 5’ by default before I added that response option, but there were a few extra new riders this season, glad you joined us!
Not too surprising of a result, maybe we’ll see some MTBs next year!
The Series and Segments
Last year we spent a lot more time on the West Shore, in areas like Royal Roads and Thetis, if you haven’t checked, here’s our Season 3 segment archives (similar to this year, you can connect a bunch of them to make some cool loops or routes, I highly recommend it, I like a number of the trails over on that side more than what we rode this season!)
But this season we spent some time in Royal Oak, Layritz/Interurban Camosun, Francis King Park, Thetis and Hartland, and a bunch of cool connectors between all these places!
For all who joined in, thank you again and well done!! I’m glad to have you along on this silly grassroots cycling series, but now we have to focus on the top of the leaderboards.
The A’s
It was a one-woman show this season, with Sofia being the only A rider, but cool to see how she added a few more QOMs to her collection (and beat most guys on the timed ones)!
The first of our final podiums is:
- Sofia Donnecke (300pts)
Lots more A riders on the guy’s side this year tho, with 15 out at least one week making this our largest field!
Julian took the early lead, and looked to have it in the bag until an unfortunate crash at the CowEx Cross on the Rock, with injuries preventing him from making it out the final week, but he still held on to 3rd (and is healing up well!) Dan B wasn’t that far off the podium, and Nicky and Glennon were both early contenders, but in the end it was Dave B in second, and myself (oops!) taking the top spot by the slimmest margin! Great seeing Ethan and Jimmy out, and Damian and Matt joined in the final week!
- Vegan Dave Shishkoff (559pts)
- Dave Bitschy (556pts)
- Julian Cameron (510pts)
The B’s
We had a great turnout in the B field this season, with 9 riding at least one segment. Megan took the early lead, and held it the entire series, posting the fastest times most weeks, nicely done!! Renata was back and keeping the pressure on, and her consistently fast times earned her 2nd. And 3rd goes to Tania Johnson, who was just a few points shy of 2nd, and fought hard to keep ahead of newcomer Kenzie! Kirsty was consistently in the action, and it was great seeing Laura, Maria, Shannon and Caroline out as well!
Once again, the final Female B podium is:
- Megan Thomas (567pts)
- Renata Troc (550pts)
- Tania Johnson (545pts)
The guys had another great season of battles, and our winner Mark D wasn’t the fastest each week, but took advantage of the bonus points, earning Early Bird points (the first person to lock in their segments during the week!) Well done, that’s how you play to win!!
Markus had a strong season, claiming the silver position just ahead of Josh who also logged some great times! Joel C and Ryan T might have been up there, had they not missed a week or two, and good seeing a bunch of other fellows out for a few segments, giving us an even dozen in this competitive category! And great having Adam, Alan, David K, Joel W, Nathan, Scott and Toby out for a few rides as well.
- Mark Devitt (574pts)
- Markus K (512pts)
- Josh Durgin (509pts)
The C’s
Our C field started great, with six riders all hitting the first week, but sadly only three carried on the rest of the season, but they were committed, and hit nearly every segment! Newcomer Anne Edwards (aka Liz, an old riding friend it turns out) dropped the fastest times most consistently, and earned the top spot! Lani, who’s ridden nearly every segment in every season, had a solid season, and claimed the second spot! And Tanya B’s consistency earned her the final podium spot. Hopefully we’ll see more of Charlene, Eli and Kelsey!
- Anne Edwards (572pts)
- Lani * (557pts)
- Tanya B (524pts)
The Open C field was our second largest with 13 riders! And the final podium may have been different if Tyler G or Devon had been able to ride the final week, as they were in the running. But as it turned out in the end, newcomer Gary secured 3rd having moved up from 5th the week before! Mark B (in part thanks to all his awesome social media posts, earning bonus points there) was second, and Greg has a well-earned top spot atop the podium!! And showing it’s about the ride, good seeing Kit, Chad, Bart, Mike H, Mike J, Sean, Mark A and Justin out hitting the segments as well.
Here’s our Top 3:
- Greg Goforth (585pts)
- Mark Baker (556pts)
- Gary Peever (509pts)
Phew – what an awesome season!!
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.)
We have so many generous event supporters, so as always a huge thank-you to the businesses, groups and individuals below for contributing to our Season 6 draw prizes!
Each week we gave away some of this awesome swag by random draw!
@MortgageCyclist
Finishing Up!
If anyone wants to re-live the season or visit segments they missed, here’s an archive of all the Season 6 Segments.
To all our participants, whether riding one or all the segments: thank you!!
Thank you for being a part of this community, and for getting out there and having fun on the bike, that’s the main thing. If you’re out there doing this with friends, even better!! I’ve made a bunch of new friends through this, hope you have too!
And as this is a blog post, please do feel free to add a comment below – it’s great hearing what you enjoyed about the series, and who knows, might inspire someone else to join in as well!
See you out there back on the road for Season 7, coming March 2025 – training begins now!! 🤣
– Dave
