River Valley Cycling

Supporting Cycling In and Around Fredericton

Strava Race Series Update

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What a month for RVC races! 

The return of Short Track and debut of the Enduro Series were both met with fantastic enthusiasm and the Wooly 4 was a huge success.  Over on the Strava Race side things were hot as well with an excellent month-long back-and-forth between Mattias and Alex for the KOM (the lead changed hands multiple times). For the women Melissa captured her second MVP crown of the series and Tara, not far behind, kept her perfect season record intact. We’ve been inspired by the Short Track and Enduro with their series standings and cool trophies so we’ve gone back and now have Strava Race standings as well. We also intend to award a trophy to the top male and top female racers when we conclude in November. The prizes, however, will still be a random draw based on segments completed so if you haven’t got your name into the hat yet, there’s still cause to do so. 

Overall Season Standings To Date

For the Women Tara leads the way, combining strong results with perfect attendance. On the Men’s side, the podium is also filled by folks with perfect attendance but has seen some jockeying for position in recent months. Best of luck to those in the hunt for the trophies, keep the rubber side down! 

Clicky here for the full standings.

September’s Segment

The next segment runs from September 1-29, 2023 and is once again back to Woolastook where exciting things have been happening all summer and will continue to do so late into the fall. We’re going to utilize the new flowy trail built by Dig-In Trail Building, the new connector built by intrepid volunteers Bev and Norm to finish on Shoreline East by the picnic table for a quick rest. Be sure to check out the revamp to the length of Shoreline done this season and the Summit Deck built last season as they have both been fantastic additions to the system made possible by our partnership with the Canada Community Building Fund. 

RVC Strava Race Series #4 (Slash N Pinball)

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For our August challenge, we are heading to the MVP Flight Deck Enduro Trails to celebrate the Enduro Race series that kicks off tonight, July 31st. For our Strava segment, riders will start at the bench and head towards the flyover bridge. *please note that there are plans to reshape the bridge this month and it may not be available for your attempt but you can ride around to the right*. After passing the bridge stay right to enjoy the top of Slash N Berm. Take the short track exit and climb back to the bridge immediately turning right then sticking left to descend Pinball to end the segment.
Remember, every segment for which you log an effort will get you into our year end prize draw.

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2023 RVC Strava Race Series Update

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RVC’s second Strava Race Series segment saw 42 riders tackle a seemingly innocent, but ultimately challenging climb before their fun descent. Despite following for years what has been a popular route both the all-time K & QOMs were established in June 2023, congrats to James and Melissa for those efforts! It was great to see 17 riders from the Woolastook Shoreline challenge last month make their way to MVP to test their mettle again.

For the month of July, from 1st to 30th, will have the race series taking us to the Penniac trail network to tackle a relatively new trail, Spin Cycle. This is a multi-directional trail, which the race will descend, that will test a rider’s ability to keep momentum on flatter corners as it rides more in a cross-country style than downhill.

This is a multi-directional trail, so we encourage riders to be courteous and remember that climbers have the right of way if they happen to cross paths. The RVC Summer Trail Crew will be on the ground in Penniac in the next few weeks to help with maintenance on a great trail system.

While you’re there be sure to also spin the legs on local favourites: Uptimizer, Learning to Fly, Numbers and Dozer.

https://www.strava.com/segments/30719154?filter=overall

Remember, every segment for which you log an effort will get you into our year end prize draw.

Solo STRAVA Race Series ’23

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Just for fun we’re going to host a couple of self-directed races this spring and summer. The idea is just to have a good time, direct some traffic onto our trails, and celebrate riders who are pushing themselves to go faster.

Here’s how it works. We’ll create a segment on Strava with our new RVC Race Bunny account and we’ll post it as open on our social channels. You go chase the bunny on your own time, and we’ll keep track of both the men’s and women’s leaderboards. We’ll keep each segment open for 3 weeks and you’re welcome to try it as many times as you want. At the end of the 3 weeks we’ll post up some big kudos to the fastest men’s and women’s time. We’ll also keep track of participation over the entire series… and there may be a few prize draws at the end.

What do you need: basically a Strava App working on a GPS-enabled device and your RVC membership!

Now a few tips:

  • Safety first – we know some riders like the competitive angle of Strava and we expect to see people pushing hard. Just ride within your limits!
  • Pre-ride – we know that short distance segments can do some squirrely things with GPS so most of our races will be a few kilometers. That means there may be some intersections and the potential for wrong turns. Pre-ride each race so you know where you are going.
  • Mind your manners – a Strava race is not an excuse for poor trail etiquette. If you ride the segment on a busy weekend with beautiful weather expect to encounter other parties on the trail. Share the trail! If that means you lose your speed and need to do another lap look at it as a bonus.
  • Over-shoot – you may not want to take a big break just before or just after your push on the segment. Speed up before the digital start line and overshoot the finish by a healthy margin. GPS can do frustrating things and this is your insurance policy.

A note about bikes… we don’t mind what bike you ride. This is just for fun and we’re not taking things too seriously so we’re not keeping track. We anticipate the question: “Can I use my fatbike / gravel / singlespeed / e-bike / etc”. The answer as far as we are concerned is yes… ride the bike you have… but if you’re on an e-bike you’re just doing this for fun… e-bike times are not going to count towards the leaderboard.

Solo Strava Race #1 will start at Woolastook with a route that captures all of the work over last fall and this spring on the Shoreline trail. Have a look at our map, and be aware of the turns you need to take along the segment. The remainder of the races over the season will be posted on our social feeds. This segment opens today and we’ll look at the results on June 1st. Have fun!

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Proud Members of: Velo New Brunswick

Canadian Cycling Association

International Mountain Biking Association