Arriving at Stromlo and seeing Martin and
Juliane was like coming home, having done many of their events we know them
well and the vibe was just so friendly and relaxed after the national round.
The course was going to be awesome, up the usual climb then down the back of
the mountain with Pork Barrel, a loop of all that rocky stuff out the back then
onto old favourites like Double Dissolution and Party Line before another climb
(Blue Tongue and Heartbreaker?) back up to hook into Skyline and Luge, then
still not over it was a sharp left hander and into Blackberry Climb and Slant
Six before the descent back to camp.
Just short of the 33km planned, the course
came in at about 27-28km. So that meant that as entrants in the “100km” we’d be
riding a total of more like 83km, but it was 83km of Stromlo single track with
only minimal fire trail in the course – it was going to be tough.
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| Good morning Stromlo! |
Luckily the thunderstorms that were
forecast just skirted the edge of Stromlo all night and the track was dry for
the mad buggers riding the 100-mile option, which kicked off at 5am.
We had a much more relaxed start time of
9am but despite that it was a frantic rush to get ready with 10 minutes to go.
Lining up on the start line I placed myself mid-pack with no idea how the legs
would pull up after the smash fest the day before. Then we were off, sprinting
to the first single track which caused a bottleneck and we all got our heart
rates back down while we waited to file into the sniggle.
The conga line continued up the climb and I
started to feel like my legs were strong and happy to be back on the bike. The
bike itself was loving Stromlo, it just seemed to roll over the rolls and up
the climb. About half way up I could hear a 100-miler calling track on the guys
behind me, unfortunately timing had seen the lead rider Ed coming through for
lap 4 just as we started out so he was patiently passing the whole field of
100km and 66km riders despite having almost 100km in his legs already. Pulling
wide on a corner to let him through I was amazed he was still managing to thank
people and sound friendly it must have been a hell-of-a-job getting through
that field.
By the top of the climb the conga line was
starting to spread out a bit, a few bits of rolling descent before the true
summit meant I could assess the descending speed of riders around me. I started
passing a few guys that I pegged as being slower than me on the descent. I know
that Pork Barrel doesn’t allow much passing and I didn’t want to get stuck
behind slower riders if I could help it.
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| The XR team is made for Stromlo.... :-) |
Hitting the true summit the remote lever
for my new CTD suspension allows for a simple flick and the platform is fully
open for descending. There was still a bit of traffic on Western Wedgetail and
then it was into Pork Barrel, which I haven’t ridden since the Rocky Trail MTB
GP round early last year. Some track work has smoothed out the start but the
big rock roll over is still there – the new bike taking the A-line in its
stride. Then I was on the tail of some bloke on a hard tail who was clearly
finding Pork Barrel a bit full-on, his rear wheel was bouncing all over the
place and I thought he was about to head over the bars.
Luckily he found a place for me to pass and
I headed on down over the smoother sections that have been reworked but still
like to launch unwary riders into some airtime. A sharp left over more rocks at
the bottom and we headed into some tracks that are usually out of the back of
the blue lap in the Scott24. These have names like Deep Creek and are generally
rocky enough to stop your wheels in their tracks if you pick the wrong line.
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| Photo by GiroPhoto |
It was here the Lapierre came into its own,
it just rolled over rocks but without making me feel like I was driving a
semi-trailer. I still felt connected to the trail (something that you can loose
with full suspension 29ers) but I just felt like the bike was flowing over
everything. The suspension was now in trail mode and the rear shock took the
harshness out of the trail but without the feeling of losing too much power.
I know this section of track well after
many laps at 24 races and so I knew to give the guys in front a few bike
lengths before the tricky bits – meaning I could avoid unclipping when they
came unstuck. Loving the bike and loving the track I was happily chatting to
buys I was passing, quite a few of them called me Cheeky ;-) I guess it is
written across my bum!
After Deep Creek it was down a fast
firetrail and then a fairly rocky Missing Link climb back up to the start of
double dissolution. It was on this climb that I could see Tim up ahead, a
little odd as he usually puts minutes into me on the main Stromlo climb even
through I can put a bit of time into him in technical single track. Catching
him at the top of the Missing Link climb I heard that he’d had a decent stack
on the Pork Barrel roll down, complete with being hit by the guy behind who
couldn’t stop. I tailed him down double dissolution and then into the next
single track where I sat on his tail and got the whole story, his levers had
twisted around on his bars in the stack and he was planning to stop and fix it
at the end of the lap.
Coming out onto fire trail we started
climbing up to the start of Party Line – of course this meant I lost Tim as his
power on climbs is well beyond mine. I used the section to eat and drink before
heading into Party Line – wooot. Party line is just fun, it’s flowy and has
bermed corners although lately it has also had some loose sand which catches
the unwary.
Running new Rubena tyres (as well as a new
bike, new wheels) I did have a few hairy moments where I almost lost the front
wheel. There seemed to be a point on the turn where the side knobs suddenly
caught and whipped the tyre into a tighter turn than I was intending, I wasn’t
convinced I like the tyres but they were rolling fast.
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| Vanilla Bean GU - hardy stuff |
Out onto another short section of firetrail
and then into more single track with fast shallow corners and few rocks, I
could see Tim up ahead again and was gaining on him. In fact there are pretty
much no rocks on this section, which is why I couldn’t believe it when my
sidewall caught something in the middle of a corner and my rear tyre suddenly
starting raining sealant on everything within a few metres. Coming to a wobbly
stop I realised I’d had a fairly decent sidewall tear, about 2cm long and there
was no way it was self-sealing.
Out came the spare tube, the CO2 and … hmm
no tyre levers, I’d forgotten them. I managed to get the tyre off anyway and
was confronted with a swimming pool of sealant still in the tyre – what a
waste! About this time one of the guys I’d passed earlier pulled up “oh no
Cheeky,” he said “what’s happened?” I told him I’d ripped my sidewall but had
all the gear so he wished me luck and carried on.
Tube in and I realised it was just going to
herniate through the side wall, lucky I had a GU wrapper so that went in to
support the tear before I got the CO2 in and back on the trail. I lost about 11
minutes in that time and no girls had come past, so I figured I was either well
ahead of the other girls, or well behind them, and either way it wasn’t going
to change. So time to just ride and have fun.
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| Check out the bulge, it held for another 60-odd kms |
Coming back through transition Tim was just
heading out after his repairs, I grabbed the car key and checked my tyre
pressure with the track pump, grabbed another spare tube and CO2 before heading
out again.
Having lost a total of around 15 minutes
now meant that I was passing pretty much all the riders I saw on track,
including some of the guys I’d passed previously who had seen me stopped with
the mechanical. A few of them called out encouragement, and several of them called
me Cheeky ;-) one of them complained afterwards that I’d passed him like he was
standing still.
Back up Stromlo again and the bike was just
flying, I was loving it so much that I was telling the riders I was passing
just how awesome it was. I think they thought I was mad, but seriously this
bike was just made for Stromlo. In the back of mind was the fact that I had a
vanilla bean GU wrapper bulging out of a side wall tear on one of the most tyre
munching trails I’ve ever ridden, but it would seem GUs wrappers are pretty
hardy and it was holding up well.
Climbing up heart breaker climb for the
second time I passed Meryl King, one of only two women to take on (and
complete) the 100 miler, then it was onto back into Skyline and Luge for the
fun factor before finally coming into transition for the last lap. Tim was just
leaving again as I came in so it seemed we were lapping at similar speeds.
Having ridden the first two laps with a Camelbak
I ditched it in favour of just a bottle for the last lap. The Lapierre fits a
full 800ml bottle on even on a small frame – pretty good for a full-sus 29er –
and there was also a water station half way round if I needed to refill.
The weather had warmed up and despite some tantalising
drops of rain it had stayed dry and dusty. It was now around 12:30pm and the
full sun on the climb was roasting, black kit might not show the dirt but it
does warm up a little!
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| Stromlo can hurt too! |
The funny thing about Stromlo is that we’re
all used to riding certain loops that are commonly used in races, this means
certain section of track are associated with that feeling of “almost home”. The
double length loops in the Rocky Trail meant that those feeling would arise
automatically only for you to realise that you actually had to climb most of
the way back up the mountain again and complete another 10km before you were
home.
In some of the fast corners just after Double Dissolution the inevitable happened, the front wheel side knobs grabbed I was down hard on my right side – unfortunately onto some rocks. Ouch, I swore and hopped around for a few seconds before getting back on the bike, sorry to see a few small holes in my Cheeky bib shorts. Stromlo claims yet more skin!
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| Actually that's me in the photo ;-) |
Near the top of Heartbreaker climb I caught
glimpses of Tim through the trees and put effort in to make up time on Skyline
and Luge so that I popped out on the fire trail only just behind him. I caught
his wheel on Blackberry Climb but once onto that section of firetrail before
Slant Six he pulled away again. I made up ground on through Slant Six and
caught him on the descent down Breakout and Muck Raker. Unfortunately he
dropped his chain just as I caught him so I was past and away while he was
fixing that.
Finally that “almost home” feeling was
actually justified and I was at Homeview Junction and onto Old Duffy descent
for the final time crossing the line in 5:15. The girl on timing said “that was
a fast last lap!” – I guess it looked it on paper with the flat in the first
lap and time checking tyres pressures and getting a new tube coming under the
second lap.
In the end I won the 100km women’s category
convincingly but more to the point I had a fantastic day on a fantastic bike at
a fantastic event.
Thanks to Cheeky Velosport for their
support and my fabulous new bike, and thanks Rocky Trail for another fantastic
event.
