Awww - I just finished tallying the Week 8 results and the season's final scores! Can't believe another season is over, and we're done with the road!

I hope everyone enjoyed the final segments, definitely a bit of an 'everything bagel'!! Thanks again to those who sent in segment suggestions (including the 7 Sisters!! While 29 people rode this week, only 19 did the bonus segment - you missed out!)

The final season results have been posted as well, please take a look and let me know ASAP if there are any errors, I'll be posting the final report early next week, and hopefully it's all correct.

I'm not done scheming - a few fun items in the next month or so:

* Sat, Aug 2 - Royal Bay Crit! It's not official yet (awaiting one last approval), but it's looking like it'll happen. There's the regular A, B & C categories, plus I'm putting on an 30min intro clinic at the start. (You can do just the clinic, or it's included in your race entry as well.) Details on the event page.

* Sun Aug 24, 31 & Sept 7th - Cyclocross Skills School! This is a clinic series I put on every year, it's the longest running CX clinic in BC, or likely Canada! Graduates have gone on to never enter a cyclocross race, or race World Cups. Most are in-between. 😁 Either way, it's a good way to pick up some cool bike skills! Details (still needs a wee bit of updating) and sign-up here.

* Sat, Sept 6th - Scrabblethon! It's back, and will most likely be on the Francis-King loop. If unfamiliar, it's a fun gravel (or MTB) 'race', on a short 5-10min course, and each lap you collect a Scrabble tile. You can do as many laps as you can in 1hr. After that, we try and spell the best word we can, highest points win! I've run this three times, and it's a hoot, check out the past editions here.

* Sept-Oct - the GRAVEL EDITION Segment Challenge! Less about competition, most segments non-timed, and are more about finding cool new trails and routes. But one out of four will be timed, so there's still some fun competition. Details coming soon!

I'm also hoping to put on another Royal Bay Crit on the 26th, we'll see how that goes...

Make notes in your calendars, and let's carry on with our regular weekly proceedings!

Racing News

Lots going on! Wednesday was another North Saanich Kermesse, but it was a bit more of a No Saanich KerMESS. Apparently a paving crew showed up at 7pm and that was that. Joji's bike failed catastrophically, and he crashed really hard; broken collarbone and many cracked ribs, sending him healing thoughts.

Windsor Park was today, and thankfully I didn't hear of any crashes. There was a C race, and they held their second ever Women's race, I had a fun time in the B race (and spaced out on the sprint!) And the A race looked pretty good too. Find the results here. There's just one VCL bunch race left with Caleb Pike on Aug 17th.

The Tour de France Femmes started yesterday, and the first two stages have been fantastic!! There's five Canadians, including Victoria's Sarah Van Dam. She finished well yesterday, but today arrived with a big bunch that was 8mins down which is a bit surprising, wondering what happened there. That'll at least open up some exciting break-away opportunities at least, assuming she's okay! The race continues all week until next Sunday!

And today was the conclusion of the Tour de France, and typically the 21st stage is a snooze until the final kilo or so, but holy moly, it was a banger from 20km out, definitely worth watching if you haven't seen!! Not sure when the last time it ended was even close to being this thrilling!

HOUSEKEEPING

Notes for the week:

Nothing too exciting.

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!

7 <- 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! 😊

Once again, too much bike racing to catch up on, so had the TDF podium ceremonies playing in the background, and I can't wait until that stupid soundtrack leaves my head!! 🎶

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

Great to see Tina and Brooklynn back out for the final week, and their results were CLOSE! Brooklynn had the upper hand on Logan's Run by 3sec, but Tina got Liberto by 1sec.

Most of our guys were missing this week, and somehow I swept the top steps, was definitely not expecting that on Logan! The rest of the results were similar, with Dave B earning both Silvers, Sam collected Bronze on both (but credit to him for crushing the Bonus Segment!), and Ethan just missing the podium, I'm guessing with a chill ride on the segments.

The B's

Gabrielle had much better luck this week, and actually posted the 3rd fastest times of EVERYONE on both segments! Future A for sure, that hard work is paying off! On Logan, Renata kept ahead of Julia by a small margin, but on Liberto Julia was fairly quicker, and Sarah P pipped Renata by 2sec earning one final podium spot for herself.

Joel C also had a clean sweep, taking Gold in both, I think that's a first for him! Times were very close however, just 3sec back was Josh, and Todd just another 5sec back. Scott and Evan were just behind on Logan. Todd was one second behind Joel C on Liberto, and Josh 2sec off him! Scott once again just missed out, and by one second, and the same with Evan! It was a much bigger gap of 2sec to Greg, Jamie another second off that, Teddy 2sec, and Mark D and Michael J not far off. Pretty cool wrap for this group!

The C's

Just Kirsty and Kathryn out again, and they also traded the top step on each segment, with Kirsty opening a pretty big gap on Logan, but Kathryn sneaking ahead by 3sec on Liberto. Whoop whoop!

Hobbers once again swept the top podium step, but it was also really close. On Logan's Run Dan C and Kit were just behind, and reversed that on Liberto. Tyler G, Bill R and David R put in strong times to complete their season as well, nicely done everyone!!

BONUSES & CURSES

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

Gabrielle took the QOM on Liberto, but that was all this week!

• Early Bird was Josh this week, apparently passing Michael J who had a flat on the segment at the same time!
• No secret times as usual, tho very close!
• Socialite points for both Evan and David R this week, fun to see as always! (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 claimed by Teddy on Logan's Run unfortunately!
• And no Yellow Jersey curse as is usually the case.

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 are a bit different for the final week - everyone who rode Week 8 gets an entry, plus the Top 3 in each category get a bonus entry (but can only win one prize).

Will send out the prize winner lists in the next update, after confirming the results are accurate!

Lots of cool prizes for our final week, take a peek!

Gabrielle on her way to another QOM!

Fun times on Logan's Run - I also put that pylon there to mark the start/finish, hope that helped!

Dave B dropping big watts at the end of Logan's Run!

7 Sisters encouraging Segment Riders.
These notes weren't there on Tuesday when
I first rode the segment, but were there Thursday!

Thanks again to you all for coming out and being part of another season of the Victoria Segment Challenge!! Thanks for supporting grassroots cycling, and doing fun things on bikes! And of course all our event supporters who've donated so many awesome prizes.

Hopefully see you for the upcoming events over the next month, and we'll be back Spring 2026 with another season of the road edition of the Segment challenge of course! 🔥

As always, safe and speedy riding all! 🚲

- Dave

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