There it is, another season down! The Spring 2025 Segment Challenge started a bit soggy, but ended pretty nicely, running March 3rd thru April 27th.
The season was a bit shorter than previous years, but in part because there’s a whole new series – So You Think You Can Climb, running four weeks in May.
We still ran 8 weeks, and the theme this season was to try and include some more ‘speedy’ segments, rather than climbs, and I think it delivered! It was 8 weeks of segments, 16 segments total, and as usual a number of QOMs and KOMs were claimed!
Some quick stats:
- Number signed up: 65
- Number in the Strava group: over 340
- Number who rode at least one S7 segment: 50
- Male:female split: 38:12
Special Recognition – The Hardcore!
We didn’t break our record of 10 (illness hit some of our regulars unfortunately), but still had 8 riders who made it out every single week, and so I’ve got a special shout out to Dan Blackwell, Dave Bitschy, Renata Troc, Daniel Struthers, Joel Crocker, Bill Ransford, David Robertson 🇨🇦 🇺🇦 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 couple charts from our Season 7 sign-up as well (note we had 65 people sign up, but a few never joined in – hope to see you next season!!) Here’s some of those details:
Interesting break-down of which events riders have been out for!
I also asked about what tire size people are riding:
Thankfully no one on 21mm tires, but the trend of wider tires certainly is on display here. I’m still on 23mm tires (my race bike won’t fit anything wider!), 27/28mm are clearly the most common, but I am surprised so many are on 33mm or larger!
The Series Final – Our Overall Series Winners 🏆
Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty!
We didn’t really roam too widely this season, as is normal for the Spring season – the weather can be unpredictable. We started out on Island View, with the climb from the side of the highway…and a descent right back down the same way! Amblewood and Granville & Hastings were ever-present (again with more high speed finishes). Then we started going uphill…returning to Mill Hill, and Conway/Hector (but that was another fast one!) Triangle Mountain meant more climbing, with Fulton, one of the hardest segments we have featured. Then we were over by Humpback, and a brand new road up Constellation. And concluded out near Royal Bay with an uphill sprint, and another ‘technical TT’ out on Glen Forest & Sundancer. Not a bad mix, if I do say so myself!
If you want to check out the Season 7 Archives, you can find all the segments we did here!
Everyone who took part gets a big thank you and congrats and I appreciate you for joining in this silly grassroots cycling series, but now 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 four riders total, with newcomer Brooklyn jumping right in and dropping some solid times, topping most of the guys (in any category!) Jen Ward was back and also put in some big watts to take second, and Kimberly and Emma both participated in one segment each, but Kimberly scored slightly more points to claim our third overall podium spot.
Our final podium is:
- Brooklyn Taylor-Clark (507pts)
- Jennifer Ward (294pts)
- Kimberly Chen (50pts)
On the Open side, we had a bigger turnout once again, and one of our tightest ever finishes, with Julian finishing ahead of Dave B by just one point! All the more impressive is Julian missed a week. All those 1st place points and KOMs start to add up! Phillip was on track to claim 3rd, but skipped the final week, which put me in that position, not all that far ahead of Dan B. Justin joined late in the season and posted some great results earning 6th, and we saw less of Spencer, Graham, Rich and Nicky, but it was great when they could join us.
Once again, our final A podium:
- Julian Cameron (699pts)
- Dave Bitchy (698pts)
- Vegan Dave Shishkoff (671pts)
The B’s
Similar to the A’s, our Female B category was small this season, with Renata coming out strong in the start as well! But she was joined by Gabrielle, and the two had some fantastic duels, would have been great to see how it would have turned out if Gabrielle had been the full season!
Our final Female B podium is:
- Renata Troc (781pts)
- Gabrielle Leung (494pts)
The Open B field has shrunk a bit, but no less competitive! Newcomer (and future A) Daniel S came out guns blazing, claiming the top times most weeks! There was an upset in the end – Travis O had 2nd all but locked up, but missed the final week, and so Joel C snuck ahead in the final stretch for 2nd overall. Josh was also in the running, but missed the last two weeks due to illness. Scott had a fantastic season, finishing 5th, ahead of Evan and David K (who put in some killer times this season!) Great seeing Joel W back for a few segments, as well as Ryan T, Mark A, Ethan S and Adam L!
Once again, our B podium:
- Daniel Struthers (770pts)
- Joel Crocker (683pts)
- Travis Orr (639pts)
The C’s
This is typically the largest category for our female riders, and that trend continued with a pretty competitive series! Kathryn and Suzy were both there for the start of the season, and after some great duels, finished 1st and 2nd! Heidi rounds out our podium, ahead of newcomer Nina, and we welcomed gravel rider Ann to the road, and great having Lynn out as well, hopefully we see more of her in the upcoming series!
- Kathryn TGreat (575pts)
- Suzy Sylvester (468pts)
- Heidi Mierau (365pts)
Our largest field was the C’s, with 16 riders! Coming into the final week, we actually had a tied for 1st between Greg and Kit, but Greg, who took the top times most weeks, and even missed a week, took the W in the end! Yes, Greg will be moved up to B. 😉 Newcomer Bill was not far off the total, having ridden solid times all season, and earned the final podium spot just ahead of David R. Tyler G, Teddy, Ron M, Tony, Clayton, Mike J, Michael J, Ben, John F, Owen, Mike H and Sean J all had their highlights as well, and I’m sure will keep moving up season!!
Out of 16 riders, here’s our Top 3:
- Greg Goforth (674pts)
- Kit St. John (661pts)
- Bill Ransford (632pts)
It was a blast watching you all ride all season, and there were so many great efforts, congrats to all for making the effort!
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 very generous event supporters, so as always a huge thank-you to the businesses and groups below for contributing to our Season 7 draw prizes!
Each week we gave away some of this awesome swag by random draw!
@MortgageCyclist
Bunny’s Kitchen
Finishing Up!
That was fun season – once again, so great having so many join in! Also to our series supporters who contributed many awesome draw prizes. I see people from here riding with bottles, gloves and more won in the series! 💖
Given this is a blog post, please do feel free to add a comment below – it’s great hearing what you enjoy about the series, share some stories, and who knows, might inspire someone else to join in as well!
See you out there for So You Think You Can Climb, and the Summer Segment Challenge will start up in June – it’ll another edition of the Rider’s Choice! Find the button on the event page to submit your segment requests.
Safe and speedy riding!!
– Dave
