Hey everyone! It's nice to be back in your inbox!!

Hope you've all had a great winter, we had some interesting riding conditions for a few weeks there...! But hopefully everyone's getting back into the swing of things, and have done a few short efforts to get the blood pumping.

This year I'm 'easing' us into it a bit - one of the segments you could coast! 🤣 They're both pretty short and sweet, and should help get us back into our routines!

A reminder that the sign-up is required every season, so head to the site and be sure to sign up!

Also for our newer riders, scroll down the Segment Challenge page to the Bonuses & Curses section - there are a few fun twists to the Segment Challenge, ways to score a few extra points, or possibly lose them...

And of course we've also got a number of local businesses and individuals that support the series, donating prizes that I give out each week! In order to qualify, simply ride the segments that week! And names are drawn at random. (Note that for fairness there's a 'two prize' limit until all names are drawn, then it gets reset.) If you're curious what prizes are being awarded each week, be sure to follow the About The Ride social channels (IG & FB), plus I post other (hopefully) useful info as well!

Thanks as always for being a part of this fun and quirky series, let's get on with business:

Week #1 - Mar 3rd - 9th - A Little Up And Down

We're back! Can you believe this is our 3rd year? I'm starting us off fairly easily, shorter segments, one you could even coast the whole way!

Let's get this party started!

Segment 1A Name: Island View Climb (Towards Beach)
Deets: 1.05km, 33m elevation gain.
This is an existing segment, QOM is Deborah LeBlanc with a 2:01 & KOM is Matthew Ney with a 1:31, LL is Eugene Hahn with 5 efforts.
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/9435514

We're headed out to Island View, I'm sure most have been down this road, if not, continue on down to the beach, it's a popular spot!

I'm taking it fairly easy to start us off, it's neither steep nor long, but I'm sure it'll still sting a little. 😉 That way you know you're doing it right!

Segment 1B Name: Island View Drop - Keepin' the gas on
Deets: 1.42km, 34m elevation gain. (This can't be right, likely -33m!)
This is an existing segment, QOM is Norma Jean with a 1:42 & KOM is Chris MacLeod with a 1:27, LL is Eugene Hahn with 5 efforts.
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/9488346

It's fun throwing in a 'fast one' right off the bat! If it was possible, I'd love to do a 'coasting' segment, but we can't track how or where people pedal, so give it a rip, and hope your legspeed is up for it!

Tip: make sure before you start that if a car was ahead of you, you've given it enough time to get down the road, there's a good chance you'll catch vehicles on the descent, and might actually slow you down!

Happy riding!! 🚵‍♀️

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

There it is! Have fun on the segments this week, I look forward to watching to see who gets the Early Bird award!! 😉

If you've got any questions, feel free to hit reply!

For our gravel riders, don't forget the Scrabblethon Tournament continues as well, there are two more dates with the 9th and 16th! It was a ton of fun last weekend, and looking forward to these next ones!

Once more, don't forget to sign up, here's that link one more time:

https://abouttheride.ca/victoria-segment-challenge/

Safe and speedy riding all! 🚲

- Dave

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feel free to simply hit reply!