Below is an archive of each week’s segments, relive the suffering!

Week #1 – Sept 11th – 17th – Mixed Surface to West Shore!

Welcome to our new GRAVEL Season! This week there’s no competitive segments, simply ride and you’re 1st Place in my books, and get 50pts!

If you’re a Tripleshot regular, you’ll likely be familiar with this total route, but if not this is a really great way to get from around the Switch Bridge to the West Shore, pointing you right at RRU. Reminder these aren’t timed, so please don’t go 100%, I’m not tracking times, simply enjoy the routing!!

Segment 1A Name: No relation to Sherlock, but a quick zip through the woods!
Deets: 1.81km, 8m elevation gain.
This is a new segment, QOM, KOM & LL are irrelevant!
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/35394828

We start the GRAVEL EDITION in Cuthbert Holmes Park! It’s a great little spot, just off Interurban. There are a bunch of ways to get through here, and there’s a fun climb if you cross the first bridge on the right, but this is a pleasant route through the flatter trails, be sure to watch out for walkers!

Segment 1B Name: If you know it, you know it. If you don’t, you should! 😎
Deets: 6.65km, 81m elevation gain.
This is a new segment, QOM, KOM & LL are irrelevant!
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/35394843

This is a long! It continues after you cross the road where 1A ends, and takes you through some pathways and trails to the E&N, then into the Juan de Fuca Rec Centre, and from there you can get on the Goose or head into Royal Roads. If you want to go into Thetis, simply make a right where the E&N ends. This is a very useful route, and is just as good in the reverse direction if coming back in a different way!

Happy riding!! 🚵‍♀️

SUGGESTED ROUTING

Not really applicable on this, since this ‘is’ a route! 🤣 Can simply loop back in the Goose, go into Thetis, or head out to Royal Roads where there are tons of great trails! Will we see these in future weeks? No one knows!!! 😂

Extra tip: Strava for some dumb reason doesn’t let you save Segments as Routes. But here’s a website where you can enter the segment, and download the GPX file so you can ride it as a route: https://www.doogal.co.uk/SegmentExplorer (Thanks Spencer for the tip!!)

Week #2 – Sept 18th – 24th – Royal Roads Royal Rumble!

It’s week two already! We’re headed into Royal Roads, which IMO has some of the best CX/gravel trails around. The first segment is a fun way to enter RRU and get across the grounds, and the second is our first challenge segment – a climb no less!

Segment 2A Name: Royal Roads cross trails – Goose to Heatherbell
Deets: 3.83km, 58m elevation gain.
This is a new segment, QOM, KOM & LL are irrelevant!
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/35455609

This is a fun little tour of the eastern side of Royal Roads. A great mix of singletrack, doubletrack and just a touch of pavement where necessary. There are three ‘technical’ spots – watch the steep bit over the fence at the start, about 200m later is a pretty steep climb, and then when you cross the bridge there’s a path beside the stairs that can be tricky. All are totally walkable, but a good challenge if you can ride them! The segment ends at the ‘Heatherbell’ corner, and if you’re using this as part of a future route, you can use this as a branch point – leave the park and head further into Royal Bay, or continue up the trails!

It’s a bit tricky to navigate this all, but see below for a tip for saving Strava Segments as GPX files.

Segment 2B Name: Did I just see 24% grade?
Deets: 0.85km, 63m elevation gain.
This is an existing segment, QOM is Madeline Blanchard with a 3:10, KOM is Vinko Poldrugovac with a 2:40 & LL is David Brown with 3 efforts.
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/10954735

Our first TIMED segment! So this means times will be tracked, and points will be awarded on placements.

If you’ve ridden around Royal Roads, chances are you’ve ridden up this (39 peeps in our Strava Group have!) It’s not super long, but kicks you in the pants at the start, and then you’re spending the rest of the time trying to get your legs back under yourself. Enjoy, and looking forward to some speedy times!!

Happy riding!! 🚵‍♀️

SUGGESTED ROUTING

If starting around the Switch Bridge, the segments from last week are a darn fine way to get out to RRU! Otherwise the Goose or E&N work great. Once you’re done the second segment, you can make your own adventure to get out, or this is my personal favourite to get back to the main RRU entrance! From there you’ve got lots of options, including heading further out of town, or heading back in the Goose (and maybe passing through Thetis!)

Extra Tip: Strava for some dumb reason doesn’t let you save Segments as Routes. But here’s a website where you can enter the segment, and download the GPX file so you can ride it as a route: https://www.doogal.co.uk/SegmentExplorer (Thanks Spencer for the tip!!)

Scoring

Scoring is geared towards rewarding the consistent!

For each segment completed, points will be awarded this way for the A, B & C fields:

1st – 50pts
2nd – 47pts
3rd – 45pts
4th – 43pts
5th – 41pts
6th – 40pts (and one point spread beyond 6th, to 30pts, which all below this will receive.)

Bonus Points

There are a few opportunities to score extra points! Since these are awarded to ‘one’ person each week, the rider may be Open or Female, A, B or C. Some are random, some you can actually go for.

• New QOM/KOM – if a new QOM or KOM is set on the segment, that rider gets an extra 5pts.
• Time Bonus – a time will be secretly pre-selected for each segment, any who happen to ride that exact time will be awarded 5pts.
• The Early Bird – the earliest locked-in effort for each segment will get 5pts. (Eg: someone might preview the segment on Monday, and be the ‘first’, but if they ride it again and their final result tops that one, then the second is what counts – sorry, I just don’t want to have to refresh the segment pages constantly! 😉
• The Socialite – tag @AboutTheRideCA on Twitter, FB or IG in a post relating to the competition, and my favourite post each week will get 5pts.
• Bonus Segments – some weeks there may be a bonus challenge, it won’t be scored like the others, but a declared number of points will be awarded to all who simply complete that segment.

Curses

But it’s not all roses – there are also a few ways to lose points each segment!

• Yellow Jersey Curse – if a rider in the competition holds the QOM/KOM at the start, and they fail to defend it, they lose 5pts.
• Try-Hard Penalty – if a rider becomes the Local Legend during the week of the segment, they lose 5pts. (If they go into it already as the LL, then this will be ignored.)

There’s a few surprises to keep you on your toes! (Also note that in fairness Dave the organizer will be omitted from winning any bonuses, but can collect the curses!)

Help Get Word Out!

Ain’t this more fun with more people? Help get word out! Follow our social channels, and share posts, mention what you’re doing on your Strava rides, invite friends to sign up and join you, get your clubs and bike shops to get word out!

Anything Confusing?

Fire over a note on the contact page if you’ve got any questions, ideas, suggestions, etc!

Chip In & Get Tips Back!

I’m organizing this as a labour of love, but it does take up quite a bit of time! If you’d like to chip in a few dollars, you can send an e-transfer to dave at abouttheride.ca – as a thank-you I’ll add you to a secret email list with tips for getting the fastest time on each segment – like here’s my blog post covering the basics for getting PRs. =)