Victoria Segment Challenge

Strava segment snipers rejoice,
the bane of coaches everywhere is back!
/ O P E R A T I O N / S E G M E N T E D / R E A L I T Y /

It's time to drop some watts!

Season 8 — THE SUMMER SEGMENT CHALLENGE STARTS SOON! — Jun 3rd – Jul 27th!

Season 7 just finished, here’s the final report! Currently we’re doing So You Think You Can Climb!

Here we go again, back on the road for another 8 weeks featuring a variety of segments!

Once again, it’s Rider’s Choice – you can shape the season! Fill out the quick form below to send in your request – they can be new segments, segments we’ve featured previously – let’s see where you want to ride!

Segment Suggestion Form (Google Docs form)

Sign-up form will be activated closer to June!

How It Works

In a nutshell, every week for 8 weeks we feature two segments, and riders can go ride them as fast or slow as they want. The main goal for the is to (hopefully!) check out some new road and routes. Segments times are tracked, and if you’re feeling competitive, give it a go. I collect results and scores, and there’s a ton of awesome draw prizes each week thanks to our supporters (see below)! You do need a Strava account, but doesn’t matter if it’s free or paid, all are welcome. And jump in any time – join the fun part way through!

Looking for our poster? Here’s the PDF!

NEW: A FAQ has been added, scroll to the bottom of the page to check it out!

Safety is a huge priority of course, and all efforts are made to select quiet roads/trails that are low traffic, but please do not take any unnecessary risks, this is just for fun!

Da Rules

Riding with friends is great, but remember these are solo efforts, no drafting!
Victoria Segment Challenge Rules & Sign-Up

A few rules to try to keep things fun for all:

  • There’s a full week to complete segments, ride any time you wish, as many times as you wish, your fastest result will be the one that counts.
  • Make sure your ride(s) is ‘public’Β on Strava so I can see it in the segment list.
  • The hard cut-off is 6pm Sunday when I pull the results from the segments, if you upload after that, tough luck!
  • These are to be SOLO efforts! You are not allowed help! Cannot draft another rider during any portion of a segment. Any riders found to be cheating will be removed from the competition. (It’s fine being side-by-side with a friend however, since there is no drafting benefit.)
  • Bikes: this is intended to be done on road bikes, ‘Merckx-style‘ – no aero bars! TT bikes are fine if riding on the drop bars. No swapping between road and gravel bikes. (Tho if you only have a gravel bike, fine to ride that all the time.) Main intention is to level the field, and not turn this into an arms race!
  • Do not edit your Strava ride files. Do not crop your ride files to the segments. There must be a ‘substantial’ amount of time and distance before and after each segment, so it’s part of a ‘ride’, and not an edited/cropped file of only the segment. This is supposed to be a fun cycling challenge, not a hack-a-thon.
  • Safety safety safety – please follow the rules of the road!

There are Female and Open categories, and you can select A, B or C. A typically are pretty fit folk, C’s are definitely on the more casual end of the spectrum, or just planning to ride the segments as a fun destination or goal each week!

  • A’s should know who you are! For Open A, if your 1hr FTP has been over 4w/kg, this is for you. For Female A, above 3.6w/kg.
  • Open C’s should be below 3w/kg, Female C’s under 2.6w/kg for 1hr FTP.
  • B’s should find themselves in-between these.
  • If unfamiliar, or unsure, just add a note. I will move riders around if necessary. Riders can upgrade during the ‘season’, but will lose half their points.

And yes, it’s totally free!

The segments will be a rich variety of roads – there will be climbs, but there will be sprints. Some will be short, and some may end up rather long efforts! (And all appropriate for 23mm road tires, no crazy gravel sections!) Most will be within 20-60mins riding distance from the Switch Bridge. The segments themselves will normally be nearby each other as well, so reasonable to do in one ride.

To join the Victoria Segment Challenge:

Step 1: Sign-Up Form – Coming Soon! (Google Docs form)

Step 2: Join our Strava Group (This makes it easy for me to sort our riders out on each segment.)

Sorry, but failure to follow these two steps will likely result in omission from weekly results.

Weekly Updates: Each week on Sunday evening I’ll send out an email and post in the Strava group an update with the weekly results and upcoming segments! Sign-up for emails is at the bottom of the page. Note: the upcoming segments WILL be updated each Sunday night for sure, so check in the evening if you tend to ride them on Mondays.

Season 7 Archives – if you missed a week, you can check them all out here! The full email Newsletter Archive can be found here as well!

Any questions? Hopefully most questions are answered, but feel free to send a note!

And for those keen on past segments, check the blog posts for previous Season Reports, there’s an archive of all the segments there!

Our Strava Group Stats!
πŸ”₯πŸ”₯πŸ”₯😲🀯πŸ”₯πŸ”₯πŸ”₯

This Week's Segments

Week #8 – Apr 21st – Apr 27th – We Are All Made Of Star(dancer)s!

This is our final week of segments for the Spring Segment Challenge!! We head out to the West Shore one final time for a short, snappy KOMp rematch, and a brand new twisty time-trial-style segment out on Pear Mountain. (Okay, made up that name!) Note that in the past we’d often run the final segments two weeks, but emphasizing this will be one week only, as the hill climb series starts next week!

Segment 8A Name: ALBERTS HEAD
Deets: .61km, 38m elevation gain.
This is an existing segment, QOM is Mega Rath with a 1:16 & KOM is Samuel Hogman with a 0:57, and the LL is Mandy Singh.
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/4509127

Check out the dates on the current results of this one, pretty much exactly 4yrs ago! That was during the KOMpetition, and both Dan B and Justin also hit them that week from our current riders. So not a rematch for most people..but it’s a fun and punchy climb that carries a surprising amount of speed!

Segment 8B Name: The Sundancer TT – Dancing on the pedals to the top of Pear Mtn
Deets: 2.76km, 88m elevation gain.
This is a new segment, QOM is none! & KOM is Vegan Dave Shishkoff with a 7:26, and LL is none.
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/38894982

Everyone’s ridden past Glen Forest Way and Pears, and many have crossed this little cut-through, but there are some fun side-roads in that area as well.

This twisty TT-style segment starts up Glen Forest, and you go right although remains on that road (where it technically turns into Sundance). There’s a little break with a descent, then climb back up to the end of the other split in the road, and back out and up to the tippy-top of Pears. It looks a little complicated, but it’s not that bad once you’re riding it. Do be careful on the descent as always, but it’s a pretty quiet road.

I’m a bit surprised 10 people have actually ridden this before (I kicked Rob’s butt too!πŸ˜‚), but I’m sure the top times will change hands a few times during the week, and there’s currently no QOM at all, so it’s there to be claimed!

Suggested Routing

I’ve been a bit of a broken record with the routing, but once again I’d suggest using my ‘wiggle’ that avoids Goldstream and spits you out on Happy Valley Rd, and then cruise Happy Valley to Glen Forest. If you’re good with Goose gravel, it literally crosses the road too so you can take it all the way out. Or you can roll down to the Lagoon off the Goose, but you get an extra hill as part of your warm-up that way (and I prefer coming back that way!) https://www.strava.com/routes/3107750435997229492

Happy riding!! πŸš΅β€β™€οΈ

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!!) Also, if you’re ever trying to find out when you rode a specific road, Find That Ride is an amazing website: https://www.findthatride.com/activitymap

Week #1 –Β  Hints (for Season 8, starting in June!)

Note: full details will be posted Sunday evening! Hints may change as well.. Now time-allowing featuring the “CR” (Course Record) time estimate, scale to your riding ability.

Segment 1A: This will be the best segment ever, don’t wanna miss it!

Segment 1B: Not quite as good as the other, but it’ll be in your Top 10 of all time! πŸ˜‚

The Scores - how are you doing?!

Results!

Below are our Season 7 results! Note the tabs at the bottom to flip between overall and individual weeks. Please contact me if there are any errors. 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.)

Thanks to our supporters!

A massive thank-you to the businesses below for contributing to ourΒ  Season 7 draw prizes – here’s what we have so far, more to come!

Season 7 Prize List! (So much great swag!)

Each week we’ll be giving away a bunch of this awesome swag by random draw!

Note: limit of 2 draw wins per person, until all names have been drawn!

@MortgageCyclist

Bunny’s Kitchen

Secret message!

Boring Stuff

Have fun and ride safe!
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 the ‘A’ 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! πŸ˜‰ )
  • 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.
  • Birthday Bonus – if you ride one of the weekly segments on your birthday, and let me know, and you’ll get 5 bonus points! (Note: you have to email me before 6pm Sunday that week so I know.)
  • 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!

Bonus Tip

Browse the site, you might find something helpful – like here’s my blog post covering the basics for getting PRs on segments. πŸ˜‰

NEW! Segment Challenge FAQ

Where Did This Event Come From?

The Segment Challenge is inspired by the KOMpetition challenge that came about during the COVID lockdowns.

It was a way for riders to compete safely, without coming into contact with others. Perfect for introverts as well. 🀣

Shout out to Dirtious J Dirt for the OGΒ  season in 2020, and Dan Blackwell who took it on in 2021. Here’s the original Strava group as well.

In 2023 I volunteered to continue the series, as I found it to be a really great format, and super accessible to a wide range of riders, and really should be a regular thing.

Do I Have to Ride Every Week?

Nope, ride any week or segment that’s convenient for you!

It does make it a bit easier for me scoring if people ride all the segments, but it’s not required.

Is It Free?

Yup, it’s totally free!

On sign-up you can check a box if you want to ‘chip in’ to the series, but it’s 100% optional, and there’s no difference in scoring, prizing, etc..

Is it On Road, or Offroad?

Both!

Typically there are three ‘Seasons’ each year.

The first two, Spring and Summer, are on the road, and the Fall edition is gravel.

What If I Don't Want To 'Race' Segments?

A big focus of this series is simply exploring new roads or trails. There’s requirement to ‘race’ or give it 100%, tho that’s a fun element for many!

If you just want to join in and cruise each week, simply join the ‘C’ group, and the more serious ones there will duke it out for best times!

How Long Does The Series Run?

Typically each Season runs 8-10 weeks.

Usually the Spring is 10 weeks, Summer is 8 weeks, and 8 weeks for the Fall as well.

Where Can I Find Out About Segments From Past Seasons? (AKA Series Archive!)

Here’s our series history!

Feel free to relive each season, it’s especially fun for the Gravel seasons if unfamiliar with local trails.

Good luck and have fun!

Newsletter & Email Updates

Sign up to the right for our periodic updates about clinics, events, and other notable activities! (Probably just a few emails a year, and you can unsubscribe with a click any time!)

facebook
instagram