The Summer Segment Challenge was another edition of the Rider’s Choice, where riders submitted segments for consideration, and I think we had a pretty fun time of it again! It was a bit cool to start, but hotted up as we got further in, and ran June 2nd thru July 27th.
It was another 8 weeks featuring a wide mix of terrain, with lots of ups and downs, and neat new locations as well!
Some quick stats:
- Number signed up: 67
- Number of people new to the Segment Challenge: 25
- Number in the Strava group: over 380
- Number who rode at least one S8 segment: 55
- Male:female split: 51:16
Special Recognition – The Hardcore!
Hurrah! We broke our record of 10! This season there were 12 riders who made it out every single week, and so I’ve got a special shout out to Dave Bitschy, Renata Troc, Evan Thomas, Greg Goforth, Jamie Caskenette, Josh Durgin, Mark Devitt, Todd Rooker, Kathryn TGreat, David Robertson 🇨🇦 🇺🇦, Hobbers and Kit St. John, for this achievement! (Dan Blackwell is usually on the list, but had a bad accident the final week and couldn’t ride, and 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 8 sign-up as well (note we had 67 people sign up, but a few never joined in – hope to see you next season!!) Here’s some of those details:
Neat to see, 10 also participated in our very first season!
I also asked about something everyone’s no doubt wondering – who wears gloves:
Looks like most people wear gloves, but a pretty large number also don’t. Answers you never knew you never wanted! Come on, we’re 9 seasons in! 😂
The Series Final – Our Overall Series Winners 🏆
Now for the IMPORTANT stuff. Well not really, but it’s still neat, and is a competition after all!
This season I found riders were reluctant to travel too far, so kept things a bit more central. There were some submissions that looked really fun, but were out by the ferries, or one of my favourites: La Bonne!
We started off in View Royal, aka ‘Amblewood’, wandered out to Brentwood, found ourselves at the very end of Millstream Road, atop Mt Newton, on odd roads off Rocky Pt Road, Strawberry Vale, aka ‘Granvill & Hastings’ and wrapped things up in Saanich by Interurban Camosun with another ‘technical TT’. I also added in three ‘Bonus Segments’, and might have to do that more!
If you want to check out the Season 8 Archives, you can find all the segments we did here!
Props to all who took part, I’m grateful that you join us in this silly grassroots cycling series.
The A’s
This field is always on the small side, sadly, but we had Brooklynn start off strong on Week 1, dropping some serious watt bombs! Unfortunately it wasn’t until Week 6 that we saw the return of the legendary Laura (aka The Squaremeat), who hasn’t slowed down at all! Jen and Tina also came out in the final weeks, but in the end our final podium is:
- Tina Trumpy (202pts)
- Brooklynn Taylor-Clark (197pts)
- The Squaremeat (140pts)
Ten A’s were out this season, and Dave B took top honours with consistently fast times! Turns out I was his main rival, and Dan B finished just ahead of Ethan S. Julian took a ton of KOMs once again, newcomer Sam also surprised, and great efforts from Travis, Rich, Marco and Sterling!
Once again, our final A podium:
- Dave Bitschy (831pts)
- Vegan Dave Shishkoff (817pts)
- Dan Blackwell (586pts)
The B’s
Renata is once again Queen of the B’s! Sadly Kathleen dropped from 2nd to 6th in the final week, benefitting Julia and Sarah DV, who rounded out the podium! Gabrielle made up some big points in the end, but finished behind newcomer Sarah P. Great having Kathleen, Leah and C.L. out as well!
Our final Female B podium is:
- Renata Troc (857pts)
- Julia Barron (571pts)
- Sarah DeVries (407pts)
We had a big B field of 17, but Todd had 1st Place lined up from pretty early on, with many dominant efforts! In the final week, Josh moved up a position to finish 2nd, just a few points ahead of Jamie! Evan T was right in there as well, and Greg G put in a strong season. Great having the rest of our B’s out as well: Mark D, Michael J, Joel C, Ryan, Scott, Teddy, Tristan, Greg R, Matt P, David K, Adam L and Russell C!
Once again, our B podium:
- Todd Rooker (856pts)
- Josh Durgin (794pts)
- Jamie Caskenette (784pts
The C’s
Kathryn once again was incredibly consistent, and takes the W for the series! Kirsty missed a couple weeks, but was a great challenger for Kathryn, often each winning one of the weekly segments. Jane rounds out our podium, with Hannah, Sue and Janice also getting in some great rides.
- Kathryn TGreat (869pts)
- Kirsty H (635pts)
- Jane Logan (100pts)
Finally, it’s our guys in the C’s, and Hobbers had a pretty dominant season, finishing well clear of Kit and David R. Sean and Tyler tied for 4th, great riding by Mike J, Bill, Chad, and funnily Dan and Rizzi tied as well!
Out of 10 riders, here’s our Top 3:
- Hobbers . (812pts)
- Kit St. John (737pts)
- David Robertson 🇨🇦 🇺🇦 (692pts)
It’s been a genuine pleasure scoring this once again, and there were so many fantastic 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 8 draw prizes!
Each week we gave away some of this awesome swag by random draw!
Finishing Up!
Season 8 seemed to fly by, and really enjoyed most of those segments, hope you did too!
Thank you for joining along for the ride, and also another thank you to our series supporters who contributed many awesome draw prizes.
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!
Next up is the GRAVEL EDITION of the Segment Challenge! It begins in September, and it a bit different – obviously it’s on pathways and trails, but it’s more about finding and exploring new routes, so only one in four segments is a timed or challenge segment. Sign-up and more details will appear soon, and I’ll send out a note to let you know as always. 😁
Until then, safe and speedy riding!!
– Dave
