So first up, make sure you check out the Pro Racing section - Victoria pro Sarah Van Dam had an INCREDIBLE weekend of racing, so thrilled for her results!!

Also, a really big thank you to all who've chipped in for the Climb series - I really appreciate you helping out with the series; it definitely helps make this more sustainable, and also helps with running the site and hosting all the other resources as well. 🤗

In local news, apologies to Mike Cummings last week, a spreadsheet line moved, and I credited Michael Jones with his times (who was DNS), but the results have been updated!

This week - WOOF! Dean was a BRUTE. I forgot how tough that one is. What was I thinking! 😂 We had 38 riders out this week (numbers are dropping, let's turn that around for the final week!), there was one DNS on Willis Pt, and 5 on Dean! The weather on Saturday didn't help tho...I was planning to hit it then (with Emma, the QOM!), but was SOAKED in the 15min ride to the Switch Bridge and cowered home (she wasn't feeling up to giving it another attempt, understandably.) It's been a bit of a wacky May, hopefully the weather settles down.

This is this final week, and two more big, nasty climbs!! There's Neild Rd, and unlike the traditional VCL HC (probably not too many who've done the 'proper' timed version), we go all the way to the top! And the B segment is Mt Matheson - I don't find it too bad, but it is a LONG trek to get there.

Fun fact - several years ago I was the VCL 'A' Champion of Neild! Not because I was the fastest, not by a long shot (in the past B's would get a better time than me) but only three A's showed up, one was feeling under the weather, and the other had a technical issue. But hey, I was still the champ that year, if you don't play, you can't win! 😂

But enough about me, let's roll onwards... 😁

Racing News

Another quiet weekend with the exception of the Burnt Bridge Classic gravel race today! I haven't had a chance to look too closely at the results, but see a few names on there (we miss you Lani and Jen Munro!! Congrats on your offroad successes!) Here's the results for those curious, Rob Britton won the men's 'long' race by a healthy margin, and Brenna Pauly won the women's, with our own Brooklyn in 2nd!

In the Pro world, this weekend was the Itzulia women's stage race in the Basque area of Spain, and while Demi Vollering won the stage today (as expected) and the overall, Sarah Van Dam had an incredible weekend. She finished 5th on Stage 1, 4th on Stage too and then SECOND today!! Yes, behind DEMI FREAKIN' VOLLERING!! She hung in for the final climb, and then won the sprint in the chase group of about 10 women. WOW. And that put her in 3rd overall for the GC. HUGE result. That make her the highest ranked Canadian female in the UCI, it says 69th currently, but I think it hasn't been updated with today's result, so I'm guessing she may be T50 in the entire world. INSANE!! Credit to her team as well, they did a phenomenal job getting her to the line, and they actually won the Team competition as well. It's a bummer the Ceratizit sponsor is stepping away after this year, maybe they'll reconsider, or at the very least this will make it easier attracting a new title sponsor.

The other big race right now of course is the Giro D'Italia, pretty wild stage today with the gravel, and a bit of upset in the GC... Bummed to see Canadian Derek Gee is not living up to expectations, finishing 2:22 behind the leader today, and 3:59 down in the overall GC. There's still a fair bit of time for him to move up.....but it's not looking great for him.

HOUSEKEEPING

Notes for the week:

Have to reset the error counter! As mentioned, had an incorrect time for Mike C, doh! Appreciate both Michael and Mike for letting me know - don't be afraid to write me if there's an issue, I value accuracy WAY more than my own ego! 😁

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! 😁

0 <- THIS MANY WEEKS WITHOUT AN ERROR 🤣

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

SPONSORS AD

No sponsors this week sadly, but I do have this for you:

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! 😊

Again, no tunes playing today, but Pavement was on Colbert on Thursday night, that was pretty cool! 🎶

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.

I don't have time to give an overall report, but the series is close in several categories, and in many 2nd-4th will be decided with the final climbs!!

The A's

In A's, it was great to have Jen Ward back, and she had a great rip up Willis Pt, setting the 6th fastest time of anyone!! Tina was just behind her, and 7th overall!! Unfortunately Jen couldn't sneak in Dean before heading away for the weekend, but Tina put in a solid time there, solidifying her lead in the series.

Stephane hit both the segments this week, setting the top time in both, and a 50s lead on Dean!! Philip and Graham rounded out the podium on Willis Pt, with Billy and Daniel not far behind. On Dean it was Billy and Phillip, seconds separating them there, and Graham and Justin just missed the podium.

The B's

Gabrielle dropped some solid watts on Willis Point opening a huge gap to Megan and and newcomer Julia, who were 1 second apart! Gabrielle took it easy on Dean tho, logging the slowest time of anyone (and capturing a few photos), so Megan collected her first W of the series, with a good lead over Julia. Oddly no Renata this week, one of the series most consistent riders!

Over with the guys, Mike Cummings claimed the top time on both, but not by much! On Willis it was Kevin and John F who rounded out the podium, with Teddy and David K just missing out. Over on Dean, Mark D and Kevin were the ones found on the two lesser steps, and John F and Greg just missing out!

The C's

More great riding from our C's, with just 2'30 separating 1st - 5th on Willis Pt. Terra was just 4sec ahead of Laura H, and Kd also earned a podium spot, with Kathryn and Camila just missing out. Over on Dean, Laura had the upper hand with a pretty solid lead over Terra. Kathryn went off-course, but her manual time (including the detour portion) was just ahead of Camila.

And finally with our guys in C, Jamie continued his reign of excellence, claiming the top times on both once more. Newcomer Tristan and Rafael finished 2nd and 3rd respectively on each as well. Adam B and Chad missed out on the podium on Willis, and on Dean it was Tyler and Chad. The competition continues!! 🔥🔥🔥

DRAW 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 our draw prizes are for 8x $10 Gift Cards to Virtuous Pie on Pandora! 8 lucky winners get to enjoy some pizza and ice cream, yum!! As mentioned, for this series I'll simply pull names from the entire group that rode this week, and those names are:

Kd D

Julia Barron

Adam Boss

Megan Thomas

Mike Jones

Graham Fletcher

Jennifer Ward

Laura Hahn

Congrats!! I'll email you on Monday with the details!

Next week is our final week and so our final draw! There's some sweet prizes left, take a peek here, there are also some 'leftovers' from Season 7 of the Segment Challenge I'll add in (basically some gloves, bottles and a women's MTB/gravel top).

Week #4 - May 19th - 25th - Neild & Mount Matheson

This is it! Many have ridden Neild before, and Matheson isn't too terrible, except it is probably a pretty long way out for most!

Segment #4A Name: Full Neild Rd
Deets: 4.12km, 242m elevation gain, average 4.5%.
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/2027343

Going to the top of Neild, not where the VCL climb ends, for those who've done this climb in the past. I always look forward to that middle part....

Segment #4B Name: Mt Matheson Proper
Deets: 2.85km, 215m elevation gain, average 7.3%.
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/2315307

Okay, maybe it is a bit tougher than the others. At least it was resurfaced fairly recently!

Happy riding!!

This is where things started for most of us this week - bottom of
Willis Pt. Quite a bit of work to get there!

And the top of Willis Pt, although you had to
keep riding from here, the segment
finished around the corner!

I imagine most had the same thought:
it was going pretty well until this point! 😂

I was HURTIN' when I got to this point,
but at least this was the last hump...

It's the final week, and the final two segments!! Don't delay, get them in ASAP, apparently the weather doesn't care what day works better for you. 😂

And as mentioned, there's still room for a lot of upward movement in many of the categories, can't wait to see how it all plays out!!

Have fun, and as always, safe and speedy riding! 🚲

- Dave

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