Week 7 is now in the books, and lots of peeps out, so great to see! I'd say those were a couple more fun ones, pretty much just steady on the pedals the whole time, and nice to get in a bit of a longer one as well! And the bonus segment is always fun - who clipped a pedal? 😬😂

This week we're over by PISE/Camosun with the return of Logan's Run, which I like to describe as another 'technical time trail'. Besides a bunch of corners, there's also a lot of varied elevation - you're going up, you're going down, lots of corners and there's a round-about, so very exciting!! The B segment is another returning segment, and has a fun 'whoop' in it. And there's one more Bonus segment - the '7 Sisters' route in Fairfield. I've known about it for a long time, but never ridden it, should be fun!

The Royal Bay Crit pieces seem to be falling in place, I'm awaiting final confirmation from Colwood, so I think it may happen - remember the date is Saturday, August 2nd! It'll start with a 30min clinic session as well - it'll be free to any signed up for the race (A, B & C categories), or if you just want to do the clinic, it'll likely be $20.

Finally, I found out on Thursday that Windsor Park has moved, it was Aug 3rd (which would have made for a cool double-header), but is bumped up to this coming Sunday, July 27th, so update your calendars accordingly. (It's also the Tripleshot Big Loop ride, not the best overlap..!)

Racing News

Wednesday saw a Newton Heights here as part of the VCL, I haven't seen any results, but there was a rare crash on that course, hope Liam heals up quick from the broken collarbone!

North Saanich Kermesse should be this Wednesday night - it's the best 'beginners' course in the VCL for anyone looking to get into racing. Wink wink, nudge nudge.

The Canadian MTB National Champs were here at Jordie Lunn this weekend as well, and lots of new National Champs named in the Short Track and Cross Country! Oddly not a ton of BC riders on the podium (especially in the younger fields, there were TONS of riders from ON & PQ, but hardly any BC riders...how is that possible?!) You can find all the results here!

And the Tour de France continues, sad to see Remco out, but Pogacar has been in a league of his own as usual. Canadian Michael Woods has been pretty quiet, tho he's now in 3rd for the Mountains Jersey (Pogacar and another are tied for 1st). Rest day Monday, but the final week continues on Tuesday, with Mont Ventoux!! The stage is flat, with just Ventoux at the end...ouch..

HOUSEKEEPING

Notes for the week:

Added in Marco Joly to the A results, so points shuffled around a bit, but nothing dramatic. He also got the KOM 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!

SPONSORS AD

No sponsors this week unfortunately, but I'm just gonna leave this here:

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! 😊

Came across an album called Tall Tales by Mark Pritchard, Thom Yorke (from Radiohead) - definitely has a Radiohead vibe, but honestly not what I'd call the 'best' of Radiohead by any stretch..pretty mellow. Give it a spin, you might like it, but didn't really catch me on first spin. 🎶

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

Two of our fast women were out this week, with Jen and Tina!! Jen was feeling a bit under the weather, so didn't give them full gas, but Tina locked in some solid times, especially on Bossi, with the 4th fastest time out of nearly 40 riders, also taking the QOM!! Scores are really tight in the overall, and it would be pretty epic if all four made it out this week!! 🤯

Julian did not hold back, finishing nearly a minute faster than anyone else on the A segment, plus a similar gap on Bossi. Pretty awesome, two more KOMs on his CV!!! Only 5sec separated 2nd through 4th tho, with Sam sniping me by 2sec, and Dave B just a few seconds off, and ahead of Dan B. On Bossi I managed to keep a few seconds ahead of Dave B (on a second attempt!), and Dan and Sam tied for 4th. Missed a bunch of our A's this week! 😭

The B's

Great representation in our B field, and Julia was top on both, with some very solid times!! On the long segment, Renata and Sarah P rounded out the podium, with Sarah DV and Gabrielle trailing (and getting lost!) Sarah P moved up a step for her first Silver on Bossie tho, just one second ahead of Renata, and despite dropping her chain, Gabby was another second back - just three seconds difference there, that's tight!

Similarly just seconds separated our B's, less than 10 seconds for 1st - 5th, but Evan got the upper hand, with Greg G and Teddy tied for 2nd, Todd in 3rd, and Jamie and Josh just behind. Matt P had bossed Bossie tho, with Todd and Josh just behind, and Evan and Jamie just off the podium. Great riding from Scott, Tristan, Michael Jones (also our Early Bird), Mark, and Ryan!

The C's

Just Kathryn and Kirsty out this week again, but they traded podium spots on each segment, with Kathryn ahead on the A, and Kirsty ahead on the B!

Rizzi had a pretty good gap on Hobbers on the A segment, with Sean a few seconds off, and Kit and Chad not far back. On Bossi Hobbers was fastest, topping Sean and Rizzi for the podium, and Kit and Tyler just missing the podium there. Great riding by Bill, David R and Mike J as well!

BONUSES & CURSES

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

Time earned herself a QOM, and Julian of course claimed both!

• Early Bird was Michael J this time!
• Two secret times earned this week - Rizzi rode a 5:03 on the A segment, and Sarah DV a 3:42, which were our secret times this week, we finally got some!
• I didn't see any tags for Socialite points this week! 
  (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 on both!
• And no Yellow Jersey curse again.

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!

Prizes this week are thanks to Bunny's Cafe, Cinnaholic, Vegan Supply and Meet on Blanshard - very yummy! The Google randomizer has decided the following are worthy of a draw prize this week:

Hobbers .
Matt Pucsek
Sarah DeVries
Josh Durgin
Tina Trumpy
Renata Troc
Dave Bitschy
David Robertson 🇨🇦 🇺🇦

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

Our prize page is live on the site, take a peek!

Week #8 - July 21st - July 27th - Finals Week: Like An Everything Bagel!

This is it, the final week of the Summer Segment Challenge 2025! We're headed to Interurban with a couple mixers, plus one final Rider's Choice that's a final bonus segment in Fairfield!

Segment 8A Name: Logan's Run - a Viaduct ITT
Deets: 3.17km, 82m elevation gain.
This is an existing segment, QOM is The Squaremeat with a 6:01 & KOM is Stéphane Tran with a 5:26, and the LL is no one!
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/34913826

Another rematch from Season 2; I conjured up this fun one after wandering up Sarah Owen Pl and Cyril Owen Pl - there's a lot of up and down, and some fast corners, but it's in a very quiet area, so we can get away with it a bit of a more fun one. It's what I would describe as a 'technical time trial' with some good twists and turns. I'd recommend pre-riding parts of this one, and make sure you go around the round-about at the top! I'll be inspecting random rides to make sure peeps go around! 😉

Segment 8B Name: Liberto loophole
Deets: 1.06km, 15m elevation gain.
This is an existing segment, QOM is Samantha Hoft with a 1:39 & KOM is Stéphane Tran with a 1:24, and LL is Gregory Dawe with 2 efforts!
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/17303330

Another rematch from 2023, this is a speedy one with a couple corners, and a fun 'whoop' at the end - also pretty technical! Please be extra careful with the first left turn, but the rest is pretty fun and fast!

BONUS SEGMENT NAME: Seven Sisters On Bikes
Deets: 5.70km, 164m elevation gain.
This is an existing segment, QOM is Ann Campbell with an 18:59 & KOM is Dirtious J Dirt with a 14:48, and LL is no one, and also irrelevant!
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/39446896

BONUS SEGMENT! How about one more bonus segment! This was submitted by the OG KOMpetition organizer Dirtious J Dirt! Runners may recognize this as a popular (🤢) running route in Fairfield, and is now a cycling segment as well! You can give it a good rip if feeling frisky (tho be careful!), but simply complete for a final bonus of 30pts!

Suggested Routing

The timed segments are just off Interurban, so not too many routing options, and pick your poison for getting into the heart of Fairfield. 😉

Happy riding!! 

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

Another popular cross-road this week - the end
of one segment, and where the other gets nasty!!

Atop Bossi, with Dave B and Jen!

And a second time, with Gabby and Chad G (who isn't
competing.) I wanted to give this one a second go, on my
first attempt I thought I was aiming for a low 2min time,
which was WAY too hard and I blew up pretty good.
So second attempt paced closer to 3min, and an
improved result. 😁

Great seeing so many out this week, and hope to see more for the final week!! They should be pretty fun segments, and that'll be it for road segments for the year...gonna miss this!

Will be interesting to see how the final overall results shape up! The Overall Winner in many categories are pretty locked up, but lots of potential for many to fight it out for those other two podium spots.

That's all for now, safe and speedy riding all! 🚲

- Dave

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