Another fine week come and gone, tan lines may be starting to appear for some (or the unsightly helmet tan marks!)

Despite that, numbers were a bit low this week, tho we are welcoming a few new riders! Is this what I get for picking a smooth and relatively easy segment like Constellation? 😂 I quite enjoyed it anyway, as much as you can... Who here also hopped and rode the 'cobbles' in the round-about? 🤔

This is our final week coming up, and I've whipped up another fun 'TT' style segment out on Glen Forest/Pears that should see some interesting results. And another short punchy one. How's that for a season avoiding any 'bigger' climbs?

Speaking of which, starting immediately after Season 7 ends is So You Think You Can Climb - a brand new series featuring the 8 biggest climbs around!

The segments/weeks are all posted on the site, and sign-up is live, check it out! I'm also going to test out a Teams scoring, so if you're on a club/team, or want to team up with friends, make up a team name and be sure to have everyone use it!

And after the new climb series will be Season 8 of the Segment Challenge, our Summer Season, and since it was such a success last year, I'm going to make it another Rider's Choice, where you can submit segment suggestions. Give it some thought, and I'll have the suggestion form online in a couple weeks!

Racing News

In local racing, today was the River City Gravel race in Campbell River, and lots of familiar names there! Congrats to Sofia who won the women's 'long' race, cracking 4hrs! Jen Ward was 3rd overall, and 1st Masters, and Brooklyn finished just behind her, to also get on the podium, to name a few of our Segment riders. On the men's side, former pro Michael Van Den Ham won by over 5mins, retirement must be going well. 😂 Full results here.

Amstel Gold was today, lots of action in both the races! In the men's race, it was an upset with Skjelmose beating Pogacar and Evenepoel! Pog had been off the front, and Remco managed to bridge up with Skjelmose hanging on his wheel...which was probably a mistake..he should have jettisoned him. No Canadians finished the race.

In the women's race, it was great to see Puck Pieterse attacking, and finally making one stick with a couple other riders! But when Bredewold and van Dijk bridged up quickly, that seemed to me like the strongest pair, and in the final kilos Bredewold attacked and held everyone off! Lots of Canadians in the race, and Alison Jackson and Mara Roldan finished 7th & 10th (Roldan's highest World Tour finish!) Sarah Van Dam finished a few groups back 2'33 down, and looks like 5 more Canadians were in the race as well, very cool to see such a high percentage - if they can keep earning points, we'll see some very cool potential for the World Champs and upcoming Olympics, earning more riders spots on the teams!!

On Friday we saw Remco return to racing as well at Brabantse Pijl, and he held off van Aert in a pretty impressive return to racing.

HOUSEKEEPING

Notes for the week:

Added in Ryan Taylor who rode the segments last week, but signed up late.

Reminder if your time didn't record (this week or any), please either tag me in your ride, comment on the Strava group post, or send me an email -- if you rode it, I can usually figure out a 'manual' time for you, but you need to let me know! 😁

6 <- THIS MANY WEEKS WITHOUT AN ERROR 🤣

If there are any errors, omissions, issues, concerns, or anything else, feel free to hit reply!

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SOUNDTRACK NOTES

Note: 'back in my day' people talked about music, albums, etc.. Doesn't really seem to happen much these days, so I'm carrying on the tradition here! 😊

I was surprised to see there's a new album from Throwing Muses! I'm doubtful many here will have heard of them, or Kristin Hirsch, but she's been around FOREVER. First album was in '86, I started listening to them in the early 90's, when she was recording regularly with Tanya Donelly (of Belly fame). She isn't grunge, but grunge-adjacent, and in a lot of the same circles.

Now that all the weird words and names are out of the way, it's very typical Throwing Muses: downbeat, raspy, raw...this one is much more acoustic, and a higher production value as well. None of the songs really jumped out on the first couple listens, but I was also fairly focuses on the spreadsheets I was working on, but looking forward to giving it a few more spins! 🎶

THIS WEEK IN RIDES

For those new to the series, results are tabulated each week, and the event page has all the results updated each Sunday night! To see the weekly results, hit the tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet.

The A's

The B's

The C's

Sorry everyone, I typed up all the summaries, and they didn't save, and it's after 9pm and I just don't have the energy to redo it all. But lots of solid rides this week!!! 💪💪

BONUSES & CURSES

See the Scoring section of the Event Page for more details!

Phil was our KOM and congrats Renata for earning a QOM!

• Early Bird was David R!
• We got a Secret Time this week, Dan hit it on Constellation (3:32), but no 4:51 on the B segment.
• David R tagged the ATR account on FB this week to claim the Socialite points!
  (Post a shot of your ride on IG or FB and tag @AboutTheRideCA for a chance for 5pts each week! If you've posted, but I haven't given you credit, or liked or commented on your post, please DM me directly, IG has been a bit finicky.)
• The Local Legend curse was unclaimed.
• No Yellow Jersey curse as usual.

PRIZES!

We've always got some sweet draw prizes every week! Watch our socials (Insta & Facebook) to see what we'll be giving away each week!

This week is great for carb loading - with gift cards from Bunny's Cafe, Oddburger, Meet on Blanshard and Vegan Supply! The breakdown this week is: 2x A, 2x B and 4x C, and the randomizer gives me:

Graham Fletcher
Dave Bitschy

Travis Orr
Ryan Taylor

Tony Biccum 🇨🇦
Mike Jones
Teddy Grosson
Sean Jones

Congrats!! I'll email you on Monday with the details, be sure to reply ASAP! 😉

Check out all the prizes here - we've got so many generous event supporters: https://abouttheride.ca/victoria-segment-challenge-season-7-prize-list/

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!😂), 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!

Happy riding!! 

Updated on the site: as always Routing for this week: https://abouttheride.ca/victoria-segment-challenge/

It's the new climb!
And we get a new view as a reward!

The finish line was around this spot
on Humpback - a nice little sprint at
the end!

Another 'definitely not staged'
photo on Humpback!

Here we are at the bottom of the email once more!!

Some have asked what I do for a living, you might be surprised to learn I'm a freelance web designer! Holler if you've got any web design projects, small or large, reach out, I'm happy to help out how I can! 😊

Kinda nuts that 8 weeks have come and gone, and we're about to wrap up the Spring season!

Have fun out there this week, give them a good rip, and don't forget there's still a ton of awesome prizes, including all our 'grand prizes' like the bike fit, wash kit, and Quoc shoes(!!), and unless you win your category, your only chance of getting your name drawn is by riding this week so get out there!!!!

Safe and speedy riding all! 🚲

- Dave

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