Victoria Segment Challenge
Season 9 GRAVEL EDITION Report
The Fall Segment Challenge GRAVEL EDITION is our third gravel version of the segment challenge! 8 weeks and over 16+ segments, 4 of which were timed (plus one segment featuring a bonus ‘beat the time’ segment for the first time!) The series ran Sept 8th thru Nov 2nd, and we had a pretty darn nice autumn to ride around trails in.
Some quick stats:
- Number signed up: 67
- Number of people new to the Segment Challenge: 19
- Number in the Strava group: over 400
- Number who rode at least one S9 segment: 56
- Male:female split: 47:20
Special Recognition – The Hardcore!
Hurrah! We completely smashed our record of 12! This season there were 15 riders who made it out every single week, and so I’ve got a special shout out to Adam Wright, Dave Bitschy, John Fletcher, Tania Johnson, Greg Goforth, Mark Devitt, Markus K, Ryan Taylor, Tanya B, Bicycle Dave🇨🇦, Dan Coulton, David Robertson 🇨🇦 🇺🇦, Gary Peever, Mark Baker, and Tyler Galts for this achievement – we have some dedicated riders! (I also made it out each week, but not sure if I should count! 😉)
More Neat Stats
Here’s a few charts from our Season 9 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, 30 returning from previous gravel seasons!
It’s interesting to see what kind of bikes people are riding:
That would be 4 All Road, and 5 Cyclocross bikes – things are changing! And finally, the most hot topic of 2025 gravel riding – what tire sizes people are riding:
So 36-40mm has a bit of an edge over 41-45mm – we’re still not going too wide in Victoria! A surprising number riding 30-35mm, one selected 51-55mm, and one ‘All the rubber!’ Happy to see no one under 30mm.
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!
For the third gravel season we revisited some areas from previous seasons, mixed things up by hitting a few of those routes backwards, and I whipped up a few fun timed segments as well. We didn’t venture too far, mainly riding around Royal Roads, Langford, the Highlands and a bit of Saanich.
If you want to check out the Season 9 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 season we had 5 women make it out to at least one segment, and Jolene made it out to all but the first week, and Amy joined us for most weeks helping keep Jolene honest! Tina was out for just two weeks, but on the one timed segment she hit (the twisty one up ‘Mt PISE’), she actually beat everyone, including all men! 🔥 It was great seeing Gabrielle out for one week on a borrowed bike, and Kenzie joined us a few times as well, but in the end our final podium was:
- Jolene Phelps (582pts)
- Amy Willox (424pts)
- Tina Trumpy (115pts)
Over with our guys, the series leader changed a few times over the season, but in the end it was John F who came out on top – not bad given he started riding gravel late this summer, and was on an all-road bike! I held on for 2nd, and in the final week, Adam W moved up to 3rd bumping Dave B by 1pt. Good chance 5th place Jon B might have been in there as well if he hadn’t missed the first week! And great rides by the other 6 riders in the A field!
Once again, our final A podium:
- John Fletcher (592pts)
- Vegan Dave Shishkoff (579pts)
- Adam Wright (567pts)
The B’s
We had 8 B’s this season, making for some great competition! But in the end, Tania’s consistency paid off, and newcomer Katy W edged out Anne for the second step! Renata looked like she had the podium wrapped up, but missing the last couple weeks pushed her off unfortunately. Shannon M, Julia B, Rachael and Nina all put in great rides as well!!
Our final Female B podium is:
- Tania Johnson (561pts)
- Katy W (476pts)
- Anne Edwards (465pts)
B is for ‘biggest, which was our largest field this year with 14 riders! Just 8 points separated the top two steps, but Markus wins the season ahead of Mark D! It was even tighter for 3rd, with Ryan T coming up 6pts short of Greg, who claimed this podium. Scott H and Michael Jones also put in some great times and efforts, but came up just a bit short this year. And tons of great rides by the rest of the field!
Once again, our B podium:
- Markus K (618pts)
- Mark Devitt (610pts)
- Greg Goforth (537pts)
The C’s
Tanya B and Lauren started off with some good dueling, but consistency and fast times landed Tanya on the top step this year! Lani’s return to the Segment Challenge also marks her return to the podium, finishing 2nd overall, and Lauren’s early points earned her bronze, ahead of Sonya and Sarah.
- Tanya B (602pts)
- Lani * (472pts)
- Lauren Westmacott (407pts)
Our final category was also pretty large with 12 riders, but Mark B took the lead from the very first week, and held it to the end! Dan C edged out Gary P for the next-best step on the podium, and not far behind them were Tyler G and David R. The C’s also featured most of our most consistent riders as well, with those five all riding every week!
Here’s our Top 3:
- Mark Baker (640pts)
- Dan Coulton (624pts)
- Gary Peever (608pts)
Hope everyone else is inspired as I am following these every week, once again thanks to all who took part!!
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 9 draw prizes!
Each week we gave away some of this awesome swag by random draw!
Finishing Up!
So great to see the local gravel scene thriving, and more riders joining the series! For many it’s motivation to get out and ride, and weekly group rides are incorporating segments into their routines, which is pretty darn cool. (The only thing more fun than smashing a segment is smashing a segment with your riding buddies!)
Thank you for joining along for the ride, and also another thank you to our series supporters who contributed many awesome draw prizes. Be sure to let them know you appreciate their support of local grassroots cycling events like this!
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!
There may be a new winter gravel series coming up, thanks to those who expressed interest, I’ve got some neat ideas bubbling around in my head. Perhaps we’ll do another Scrabblethon, or EndurUPtor as well! And of course next March we’ll be back with the 10 season of the Victoria Segment Challenge, back on the road!
Until then, safe and speedy riding!!
– Dave
