A bit of a sad and challenging week with the Sooke Potholes on fire, made the conditions more difficult with some smoky days (and a VCL was postponed due to the smoke as well!) Hopefully some of this forecasted rain helps, and the fire gets extinguished.

More speedy rides this week despite that, fun to see the Chapel Heights KOM change hands a few times, and what a nice climb that was! Unlike Pelican - haven't heard too many compliments on that one. 😂

The overall in the series is becoming interesting - in the A's, Travis F was looking like he has it pretty wrapped up, however Julian jumped up into 2nd this week, and there's a slim chance he could win the series!

In the C's, there's 4pts separating the top three riders! Zach is currently in the lead, and Greg and Jamie are tied for 2nd! So it's anyone's result between these three!!

We're at the end of the series this week, and due to popular demand, I'll once again extend it to two weeks, so you've got until August 11th to hit them both (any time between Monday and the 11th!)

We're headed to Dean Park this week, back in the KOMpetition there was a fun option where you could choose one of the two 'front' climb options, but this time around there's just one option, and we're going in the back door, and up Ravensview - which if unfamiliar, is a solid effort in itself! Fortunately there's a short bit of recovery once you get through (watch the gate!), but when you turn onto Dean, things get serious again. A fitting wrap to the season!

Racing News

An update on the crit I'm co-organizing with Glennon - it'll be the Royal Bay Crit, and it's a fully closed course, and turns out the flow of the roadway works better in reverse, so it'll be all left hand turns! We could use four volunteers for this (to cover a couple street access points) - you'll be able to watch all the racing, and will be this Saturday, Aug 3rd, from 10am - 1:20pm, hit reply or comment if you might want to help out!

The Olympics have started, and so far there's been the Individual Time Trial and Women's XC MTB this morning - it was quite the race, and worth watching all the way through - you can watch all the races (live or archived streaming) on CBC (tho the CBC commentary is lacking.)

The Men's XC MTB is Monday morning (very early!), and Saturday features the Men's Road Race and the Women race on Sunday.

HOUSEKEEPING

Notes for the week:

Not much to mention this week, again!

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! 😁

5 <- THIS MANY WEEKS WITHOUT AN ERROR 🤣

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

SPONSORS AD

Sadly no sponsors this week, but here's something I came across to tickle your funnybone - I definitely can relate:

SOUNDTRACK NOTES

Got a live one this week!

Listening to the new Blur 'Live at Wembley Stadium' - pretty fun! Quite the range of tunes from their catalogue, and entertaining quips between some of the songs. Brew yourself a nice cup of sage tea and settle in!🎶

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

No A rides this week again, Sofia has been competing and kicking some butt at the Disc Golf European Champs in Finland and is now in Estonia, wow!

Julian's back, taking names and kicking butt! As mentioned, the KOM changed hands a few times, Louis was sitting pretty for a lot of the week, tho Carson's back as well, and finished just a couple seconds behind him also tying with Travis F for 2nd place, but Julian pwned Chapel Heights by 13 seconds! Over on Pelican he also set the fastest time, tho Stephane's time from the original KOMpetition held tight, just 2 seconds faster! This time Carson was ahead by 2 seconds over Louis!! Rich and Dan were the 'best of the rest'! As mentioned, Travis earned a solid spot for Team B+ this week!

The B's

Renata is away unfortunately, so no result from her!

Alan is back, and seemed refreshed, taking the top times on both segments! Dave B claimed double-silver (as well as Early Bird), and Evan claimed the final podium spot on Chapel Heights ahead of Mark, but Todd was third over on Pelican, with Travis O and Evan tying for 4th!

The C's

With our C ladies this week, it was a solid 1-2-3 finish, with Kristin, Lani and Rose, respectively. But it was really close on Pelican, with Lani only 2sec off!! How will this shape up in the final week?

It was a similar situation with the guys - Zach flew up both segments with the top times. On Pelican Greg was 2nd, as well as on Chapel, but Jamie tied him there, so Kit claimed third! On Pelican Jamie was third, also ahead of Kit and Tyler G. The overall battle is going to be pretty exciting, can't wait to see!

BONUSES & CURSES

No QOM's won this week, but Julian collected the KOM on Chapel Heights!

• Early Bird was Dave B this week
• No Secret Times this week
• Socialite points went to Evan T this week, another out-of-breathe reaction: https://www.instagram.com/p/C9_KCQISNbR/  (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 your post, please DM me directly, IG has been a bit finiky.)
• The Local Legend curse was unclaimed this week
• No Yellow Jersey curse as usual!

PRIZES!

For those new to the series, 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 credited to Dan B aka @MortgageCyclist on Instagram - he kicked in a bunch of cash, and I bought all these Gift Cards! This week I've once again drawn 3 names from A, B and C, and our lucky riders are:

Carson Smith
Rich Long - TORQ Ambassador
Glennon Rosenbloom

Mark Devitt
Josh Durgin
Todd Rooker

Lani *
Zach Mallett
Jamie Caskenette

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!

As always a huge thanks to all our event supporters! The page is now full, take a peek at what we've got for Season 5:

https://abouttheride.ca/victoria-segment-challenge-season-5-prize-list/

Week #8 - July 29th - Aug 11th - Mount Doom, I mean Dean

This is it, the final week, and I've created a monster for you! It's up to Dean Park, which is a challenge no matter which direction, but I've created a particularly long climb with some extra goodies! And there's also a very short kick just across the street for good measure.

And by popular vote, we'll be running this two weeks - so you have until the 11th to complete both segments!

Segment 8A Name: Please point to the segment that hurt you. 🤢 (Another way up Dean)
Deets: 3.98km, 219m elevation gain.
This is an new segment, QOM is The Squaremeat with a 13:11, KOM is Damian Parlee with a 12:41 & LL is Jamie Caskenette with 1 effort!
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/37264076

This one isn't gonna be easy, I rode it last year with Jen, Katja, Laura and Sofia with the intention of making it a segment for this year, and here we go! We motored up it pretty well that day, I'm looking at my watts and it's gonna be a lot of work to top my effort...so we shall see what happens - be sure to save something for when you turn onto Dean Park Rd proper!!

Segment 8B Name: Lower Cresswell
Deets: 0.77km, 32m elevation gain.
This is an existing segment, QOM is Christine Neal with a 2:11, KOM is Chuck Detheridge with a 1:23 & LL is Stephen Klubi with 11 efforts!
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/26460276

Keeping it short for the second segment, maybe a good warmup on the way to McTavish! If it looks familiar, it's because this has been featured twice! Once in the OG KOMpetition, and I brought it back last year as well. But those times it was a downhill sprint, this time we're going up - thankfully it's neither long nor steep. I'd recommend hitting it off Willingdon (by the airport) so you don't accidentally trigger the start if you roll down the hill to the beginning of the segment.

Happy riding!! 

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

The beginning of Chapel
Heights - a highlight of the season!

...aaaand Pelican!
Might have been one of the
least popular segments this season! 😂

This is it, last chance for glory, and a TON of great draw prizes - about 20 items to give away, and over $1000 total value!!

And a reminder the sign-up for my annual Cyclocross Skills School clinic series is live, hit the Clinics button in the menu to learn more! The dates are Aug 25th, Sept 1st and Sept 8th. They're surprisingly fun, and you'll learn quite a bit!

Safe and speedy riding all! 🚲

- Dave

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If you ever have any questions,
feel free to simply hit reply!