Well that was a bit of a tricky week, lots of rain (or at least the threat of it)! I'm assuming that affected the number of riders this week, unless Arbutus is just that intolerable? 🤢😂

I also saw some only hit the A segment, so a reminder that a number of you have some Pre-Season Bonus Points(Tm), technically you're supposed to let me know before 6pm, but if you get back to me ASAP I can adjust the scores this week. 😉 (They're listed in the tables on the scoring spreadsheet on the site, on the far right of the bottom tab.)

This week we've got another fun mix, one is a pretty straight-forward climb, but the other has some good speed to it - weeeee!

There's one final week after this (Week #10), and it's a fair bit out of town...so I'm going to make it a 'two weeker' - if you can't make it out the first week, there's also a second week to give it a go. (Or ride it multiple times, your best time over the two weeks will be the one that counts!)

We've got a few more new riders this week, welcome!! If anyone hasn't seen, I have a blog post with a ton of tips to getting PRs on segments, take a peek - you'll probably shave several/numerous seconds in the coming weeks (if that's important to you!): https://abouttheride.ca/tips-to-pr-that-next-strava-segment/

In Pro Cycling news, the women's Vuelta started today with a TTT, and it's particularly cool as there are six Canadians in it, including Maggie Coles-Lyster from Vancouver who's got a solid sprint. Olivia Baril from Movistar could be in the GC game, and Alison Jackson is racing as well, and could be a dark horse on a stage or two.

HOUSEKEEPING

Notes for the week:

Nothing too dramatic this week!

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! 😁

08 <- THIS MANY WEEKS WITHOUT AN ERROR 🤣

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

SPONSORS AD

I'm leaving it to the pros this week, The Daily Show had a hilarious bit:

Rant-A-Car: Rental Cars For Unhinged TikToks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIyZD2Kw46Y

SOUNDTRACK NOTES

Got the new St. Vincent - I've been a bit disappointed with her last album (or two?) If I recall, they were decidedly on the 'soft' side...and just not my jam.

But the St. Vincent of old is back with this one, titled All Born Screaming; lots of grit and bite, and some pretty catchy tracks. Tons of interesting and cool sounds (a bit of an electronic symphony, love it!), and there's one track I'd swear Trent Reznor from NIN is playing guitar. I got hints of XTC, Eurythmics, David Byrne and some other fun 'prog 80's energy' (if I can coin a term!) And all very St. Vincent. Recommend. 🎶

THIS WEEK IN RIDES

The A's

I'm thrill to welcome Kimberly Chen to the Segment Challenge this week, she had an 'easy' go at one of the segments, and took the top spot by default! Hopefully we'll see a few other of our fast women jump in next week. 😊

We've also got a new rider on the men's side, and we've seen Sofia drop some solid watts, and now her brother Leo has joined the fray! He set the top times in both segments, opening his account with top points! Louis had set the early blistering benchmark on the A segment, and was still just 4 seconds off Leo's time. Spencer was also just a few seconds off securing 3rd. On the B segment, Spencer claimed the second podium spot, and Nicky locked in a really fast time for 3rd, just 6 seconds between the three of them, what a battle - phew! 🔥🔥🔥

The B's

Just Tania and Renata made it over to Arbutus this week, and Renata took top honours on the A segment, while Tania seemed to have the advantage on the other side.

Travis F claimed both segments in the B's once again, including posting the fastest time overall on the B segment!! Glen had two solid efforts, claiming 2nd on the A, and 3rd on the B. Travis O also had a fantastic run up Arbutus, claiming 3rd place there, and I managed to claim 2nd on the back-end as well. Owwie!

The C's

The competition is really picking up with our C ladies! Suzy once again earned the top spot on both, with Jane also claiming 2nd on both. Newcomer Ruth rounded out the A podium, and Bonnie ran away with the B side, taking 3rd there.

Evan's dominance may be starting to wane - he once again claimed both spots, but only barely on the A segment, with Keith finishing just 4 seconds off! It was a bigger gap on the B side, but he held the same position. And Kit rounded out the podium on both.

Fantastic rides on a couple tough segments!

BONUSES & CURSES

Pretty quiet week overall - no QOM or KOM claimed.

• Early Bird was newcomer Sam
• No secret time luck this week!
• My socials were quiet, no tags this week (or socialite points!) (post a shot of your ride on IG or FB and tag @AboutTheRideCA for a chance for 5pts each week!)
• The Local Legend curse was also unclaimed!
• No Yellow Jersey curse as usual!

PRIZES!

Prizes this week are the Gift Cards that were purchased thanks to a donation from Dan B!

I'll be giving away 6 of them, and I'll pull 2 names from A, B & C:

Leo Donnecke
Nicky Begley

Greg Goforth
Sam Preshaw

Ruth Nightstar
Keith Bruhm

Congrats! I'll email you all privately on Monday with details, note that the first to reply to that email will get their top prize choices!

For this upcoming Week #9, prizes will be a bunch of the remaining smaller Gift Cards and items!

As always a huge thanks to all our event supporters, if you haven't seen we've added two this week - a VO2 test from Nick P of TriNerds, and two Beginner Climbing Lesson at Crag X climbing gym! Take a peek at all of them here:

https://abouttheride.ca/victoria-segment-challenge-season-4-prize-list/

Week #9 - Apr 29th - May 5th - Bear to Do It Again!

We've been up Bear Hill on two roads...but there's a third, and so let's hit that one too! And I wanted another segment with some speed...and Oldfield is right there! We've still got a couple climbs on the segment, but a fast bit in there too!!

Segment 9A Name: BearPopper
Deets: 0.94km, 28m elevation gain. (Seems a bit low!)
This is an existing segment, QOM is Claire Townsend with a 2:29, KOM is John Fokkema with a 1:44 & LL is dirt worship with 12 efforts!
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/5872519

Surprisingly many of our members have been up this way! It's an odd turn off Oldfield, and a dead-end (unless you take the path at the end, it's fine on skinnies), but it's another good little kick, and should be pretty low traffic! The KOM is from 2012, surely one of us can change that! 😉

Segment 9B Name: Oldfield North to South
Deets: 2.92km, 52m elevation gain.
This is an existing segment, QOM is Rhonda Callender with a 5:03, KOM is Samuel Hogman with a 4:14 & LL is martin 'Vrosty' vanderspek with 61 efforts!
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/2793997

Not much to this one, it starts on Oldfield just past Keating, and ends just past Brookhaven - it's long, but pretty fast! There's two climbs on this one, with the kickers at the start, and then a nice, fast downhill, and then back up a bit at the end. Traffic can be a bit iffy on this one, my suggestion is if you get to the top of the first kicker and there are cars in front of you, might want to restart...odds are you'll be faster than the traffic coming down (I've hit over 60kph, but wasn't even really pushing it then!) But as always, be safe and don't take any risks!

Happy riding!! 🚵‍♀️

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

Well that was fun!
Who's going to be going
up there again any time soon?

The gate left a little choice
on the road - but no choice up
that nasty bit after!

Thanks for tuning in another week, we've got just two more sets of segments, hope you enjoy them!

Safe and speedy riding all! 🚲

- Dave

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