The Rocky Trail 100

 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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

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! 

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!

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.