Rocky Trail MTB GP – Round #3 Ourimbah

I always struggle in winter, I tend to hibernate and my training suffers. While Newcastle winters aren’t much to complain about compared to what those Canberrans go through it’s still pretty darn uninspiring at 5am when the alarm goes off for that training ride. As I mourn my lack of training I console myself with chocolate which really doesn’t help the power-to-weight ratio either.

And so, having entered my hibernating cave after the Convict100 I was a little worried that my kit wouldn’t fit and my legs wouldn’t work for this June round of the five-race series. Actually, I had managed to drag myself out of bed for a couple of weeks back on the training wagon prior to Sunday’s race at Ourimbah but with only 3 weeks back on the training wagon and a month of slothfulness prior to that… well it might just be about to hurt!

After anxiously watching the forecast we got up Sunday morning and it was raining in Newcastle. With Ourimbah only an hour away we just had to hope that it was just far enough inland to stay a bit drier, and luckily the weather gods were kind.

Chats on the start line

The trail head was packed and the ground was dry when we showed up, and the rego line was almost down the road. Martin and Julianne run such great events that every man and his dog had showed up… not that I was interested in the men and dogs it was the women who caught my eye. Liz Smith the female Australian 24hour champ, Nienke Oostra my 100km competitor… this was going to be interesting! While the rego people could tell me the Nienke was out to smash up the four-hour field, Liz Smith was indeed going to be challenging me in the 7-hour solo.

With tables set up with bottles and food it was off down the fire road to assemble for an uphill fireroad sprint to sort out the pack. With a good position on the start line I managed to hold a fairly good position into the single track but not good enough to avoid the usual stop-start, track-standing and unclipping bonanza that happens when 300 people are overexcited and racing. Luckily things cleared up a bit by the infamous “drop-off” and taking the A-line (for anyone wondering YouTube can show you the line ) let me overtake a crowd on the B-line (which isn't much easier) and into fairly clear track.

A hill sprint to wake the legs up

The Ourimbah track is my favourite track to race on, it suits my technical skills and I simply love riding it. That’s not to say it doesn’t challenge me – the grazes on my knees can attest to that – but in general it’s a track that I do well on. Coming towards the end of lap one and I looked down to see that I was on track for a sub-30 minute lap! Well I was, until a left turn put us into some rain forested track I’d never ridden before, complete with slippery roots to trip up unwary riders and a few mud holes to avoid this bit of track added several minutes to the track used last year.

As it was I was lapping in just over half an hour, and figured that 12 laps or potentially 13 would be attainable. I had a sneaky goal to be the “virtual” winner of the 4-hour event as well, just to give myself some more competition but my main aim was to hold off Liz in the 7-hour event.

After the first hour I settled into a rhythm and started to tick off the laps, I started lapping girls in the 4-hour event and became quite confused about where they all stood in the standings. I hadn’t seen Nienke or Liz so I assumed they were both behind me but probably not far behind.

Cruising the flowy track!

As the four hour drew to a close I came through transition with a minute and half to go, so had I raced that format I would have just got 8-laps in and feeling pretty strong too at that point.

In the men’s race Mark Tupalski and Ed MacDonald were whizzing round at stupid speeds and as a result lapped me several times during the race. Each time they had a nice chat and Ed even complimented my riding up the rocky section of Jelly Legs climb… personally I am huffing and puffing a bit too much at that point to chat, they make it look so easy!

As the 5-hour mark rolled past I started to really feel the course take its toll. After clearing the rocks in the first 8 laps, I made mistakes and missed my lines up Jelly Legs in laps 9 and 10. I hadn’t had any time checks so I didn’t know how close Liz was but I could feel that I was struggling and her 24-hr background I was tipping that she was still be strong.

The last three laps were a struggle; that small chain ring I’d ordered for Convict100 was finally on my bike and I found myself spinning granny gear on climbs very thankful for the extra easy gears. I found my rhythm at a lower speed and cleaned the line up Jelly Legs twice more, but I was just ticking off minutes and waiting for it to end. My back was killing and all I wanted to do was get off the bike and lie down, I had lapped all the other solo girls except Liz and I knew that now I was probably holding her off rather than pulling away from her.

hurting

Finally on my second last lap I asked timing for a time check, 14 minutes up was the reply and I breathed a sigh of relief. I had calculated that I would come in super close to cut off and having a decent buffer meant I could avoid pushing hard for an extra lap. Plus barring a mechanical I wasn’t going to lose 14 minutes in two laps.

On my last lap I lapped Catherine for second time and she told me cut-off was actually at 6hrs45mins not 7 hours due to daylight – I had somehow missed that part of briefing… so I definitely was only doing 12 laps and this was definitely my last WOOOHOO

Rolling across the line was pretty sweet, the same number of laps as last year in a faster time but also on a longer track – not bad for someone who has to be dragged out of their hibernation cave in the morning!

I was stoked to beat Liz but also pretty aware that had the race been a few hours longer she probably would have caught me. I’m not planning on giving her the chance to prove it but hats off to her and her 24-hour efforts – 7hrs hurts more than enough for me!

7 hour solo winners

Convict 100km – St Albans

The Convict100km (formerly DirtWorks100km) is an iconic 100km event based out of the sleepy town of St Albans and the sandstone escarpments of the Hawksberry river valley.

As with Capital Punishment, I had stepped up a notch and entered the elite division of the event rather than age-category, and yet again it was the start that had me scared. Unlike Capital Punishment, where a self-seeded top 100% start with elites, Convict has a pure elite start, which meant five girls and about 25 men would be heading out 10 minutes before the rest of the field. Now the first 8-10km of the course is fairly flat sealed and well-maintained dirt road so staying in the pack gives a distinct advantage.  That was exactly it – whichever girls could hold the pace of the elite mens peleton would gain an advantage as they were towed to the bottom of the first climb.

Oh yes the first climb…. Infamous! In fact the week before the event I had a panic about the first steep climb, which has a 900m section with an average of 17%! I had only ever ridden the climb on a 26er with 3x9 gearing and online calculators were telling me that a 29er with 2x10 was basically going to have me pushing a much harder gear up the hill. In a panic a begged my mechanic for more gears so they dutifully ordered me another (smaller) front chain ring but it failed to arrive before the race.

Sometimes Strava gives you too much to think about!

So there it was, I was on the start line at the back of elite crapping myself about falling of the back of the bunch, walking the first climb and generally making a fool of myself. In the end only one of the two happened – I got spat out of the back of the bunch but at least it was out of sight of the start line. I also wasn’t the first with Nienke Oostra (Marathon MTB) going backwards through the group just slightly before me. Unfortunately for both of us that meant a long slog alone while the other girls got a fast ride to the bottom of the climb. Neinke was out of sight behind me and the bunch was out of sight in front as I turned onto the farm track toward the first climb.

Reaching the bottom of the climb I was totally alone, I reasoned that at least this meant I wouldn’t be seen to walk the hill if my gearing proved too much and I started the slog up. Having the track to myself proved useful, I could pick and choose my line and even take a few zig zags over water bars where required. My memory of the hill had embellished it, and while it is nasty, steep and hard, I did manage to ride it and crested the top still totally alone but with cheers of encouragement from the photographer stationed at the top.

I knew I was in 4^th place with Nienke still behind me; Jenny Fay (Sell Specialized) would certainly be off in front with Naomi Hansen (Marathon MTB) and Imogen Smith (previously Cannondale MTB, AIS road athlete) somewhere in the mix trying to chase her. My aim was to hold 4^th, I knew from Capital Punishment that Neinke and I were pretty evenly matched, so it wasn’t going to be a clear run home.

Around the first feed station the front runners of the next wave start started coming through, it was great to see some familiar faces and offer and receive encouragement from the likes of fellow Cheeky rider Andrew Lloyd. Still all these boys had gained 10 minutes on me and so there wasn’t much hope of hanging on their tails, I was essentially still riding alone.

After around 30km of smooth-ish firetrail, the Convict100 course takes a sharp right hand turn onto the Old Great North Road. This is where the fun begins with the eroded sandstone providing ledges, steps and channels along with a smattering of loose baby head rocks and patches of sand. Tim had just caught up to me having started 10 minutes behind and I let him pass only to find myself sitting right on his wheel through the rough the stuff. I started to wonder about calling track only to think that he’d gained 10 minutes on me so surely I wasn’t going to be faster than him. After a while he missed his line on a rocky section and spun out his rear wheel forcing an unclip, I scooted passed and let the Lapierre do her thing over the rocky ground.

Elevation profile for Convict shows the two major climbs out of the river valley...

Having raced the course on a 26inch hard tail the passed two years, it was heaven having a 29er dually to bomb through the rocks. I cleaned lines I had struggled with in the past, and was suddenly riding the same speed or even faster than the men around me who had started 10 minutes behind me.

Coming through the 50km feed station I was stoked to see myself on track for a faster time than previous years, and wondered when Tim would catch me again considering the gentle climb out of 10 mile hollow. Sure enough he caught me near the top of the climb but once again the Lapierre allowed me to pass him again once back into the techy stuff before Shepards Gully. Riding hard along through the rocks in the section I was surprised to come across a large group of Asian tourists out for a walk. My initial annoyance with them for being on the track soon disappeared as they jumped to the side and started madly cheering and clapping for me. I broke into a grin as one guy yelled, “go number 5, number 5 go, we are so proud of you number 5!” … I even gave him a high five as I passed and had to grin he reacted like I’d told him he’d won the lottery and I could hear his jubilant laughter and cheering fading back into the distance for several minutes… random but cool.

Arriving at the river crossing, with the new addition on a walking bridge next to the riding bridge, I dumped my Camelbak at the feed station and tackled the infamous ride across the kayak bridge.

Riding the bridge isn't for everyone!

Despite a gut-lurching wobble near the end I made it four out of four and hit the ankle deep sand on the other side. Once on the road I teamed up with another bloke and we pulled turns on the tarmac section, being joined half way along by a few more to make a train.

Then at 72km there’s a right turn and the road goes up… and up…. and up some more. And people around who haven’t done the race before start asking people around them “when does this hill end, how far to the top?”. Tim passed me again not far into the climb but staying with him was never going to be possible so I just kept grinding, pedal stroke after pedal stroke. It was now more than the first climb that I missed having an extra granny gear, with almost 4 hours in the legs there were times I wished I could just spin an easier gear, but I still made the couple of steep pinches and eventually the 85km point appeared with the welcome right hand turn onto the descent track.

One beer at the finish and I was tipsy!

Now I realised that my goal of finishing in less than 5 hours might be achievable, but it was going to be close. I pushed as hard but kept things sensible down the steep descent of Jacks track, then popping out onto the river valley floor I tried to hold a good pace along the undulations to the last creek crossing through a sandy creek bed and shallow water. Once on the other side the 100km course joins the 50km for the last 3-4km into town and suddenly I had a lot of riders around. Unfortunately most were riding slower than me but I did get a few wheels for a while to help maintain speed. Then all of a sudden there are parked cars on the side of the road, and tents, and houses and a sharp left hand turn into the finishing straight and under the arch…. 4 hours, 59 minutes and one second! I had broken five hours; that time alone would have had me on the elite podium the two years previous but unfortunately not this year – I was 7 minutes off the time of 3^rd place Imogen Smith.

Even without a podium I was happy with my race and my time, I would have won my age category by half and hour and I simply didn’t have another 7 minutes in the tank.

Rocky Trail MTB GP – Round #2 James Estate Winery

James Estate provided the perfect backdrop and the microlites got the photographers into position!

 

Round two of the Rocky trail series took to the Hunter Valley’s beautiful vineyards and in particular to the James Estate Winery where wine making and mountain biking both have a home.

It was a unique idea having the race transition at a cellar door, and it definitely seemed to attract a larger component of family and friends as well as the usual riders. The James Estate crew opened up a nice paddock for camping and the night before the race saw clear skies and cold temperatures. Unfortunately rain was forecast for race day, although it looked like we might escape the worst of it as it clung more to the coastal fringe.

As it turned out, the coast got belted with rain and we had a couple of very light showers and perfect race conditions. The track was a mixture of firetrail and singletrack with the singletrack being sandy, rocky and fun. The sand became sandier during the race and loose corners definitely claimed some skin and pride. I managed to loose my front wheel in a corner and drew blood and twisted my levers round on my handlebars. But it wasn’t anything that couldn’t be sorted out in transition and I was back on the race track pretty quick smart.

Yet again I had Catharine and Su out on track but also Meredith Quinlan, Deb Davies and Belinda Davis… one of the largest female solo fields yet! My fellow Cheeky rider Andrew Lloyd was comfortably out in front in the male solo field and I was easily leading the female solos.

With around half the track being firetrail I thought it was be an easier race but the sandy conditions made for super hard work in the single track and my legs were definitely threatening to cramp by the last couple of laps. Despite having a comfortable lead that meant I didn’t need a 13^th lap, I headed out again just before cut off and managed to lap Meredith just before the finish bringing home another solo win and yet again the fastest female lap time for the race.

Well done Rocky Trail on another fantastic event and for injecting some new trails and locations into the race scene.

Rocky Trail MTB GP – Round #1 Awaba

bottleneck on the single track soon eased

The Rocky Trail’s first round suffered a few weather inflicted set backs earlier in the year and eventually took place on Easter Monday at our local club track Awaba. Despite it being Easter weekend, the event near sold out and the trailhead was a hive of activity when we arrived and registered.

Soon enough we were racing and off into the single track which I know so well, having raced at Awaba countless times before. I had the usual competition of Su Pretto and Catherine Wood, although all being in different age categories we a well aware of each other out on track. I knew the girls were behind me in lap one and I settled into my enduro pace and started ticking off laps.

the weather held out for a perfect day

Somewhere around half way through the race I started to noticed what felt like my rear gears slipping on the climbs, and this became rapidly worse until I suddenly realised it wasn’t the gears at all but the rear hub was skipping engagement. I made a note to swap rear wheels the next time through transition but I wasn’t to even get that chance, the rear hub totally shat itself and suddenly my pedals were spinning without engaging the hub.

I stopped and took stock; I was at the point in the track furthest from transition and had no ability to pedal. I decided to free wheel/ run the track back to transition and continued to my way. Not long into this, after a decent fast down hill on firetrail I looked down and saw my rear through axel merrily spinning away… the hub was so locked up that freewheeling was actually unscrewing the through axel and I was riding without my rear wheel properly attached. Hmmmm take two – I walked my bike back to transition the fast route possible… all the time thinking that the girls would be passing me any minute and I’d have to ride hard to pull them back again.

Back at transition I was thankful I’d brought my stock wheels along as spares and was soon back on the trails with a different rear wheel in. Surprisingly the girls hadn’t passed me at all, I’d been about to lap them when the mechanical happened so I was still leading the female solo field.

The rest of the race continued pretty much without incident, Su and Catharine both called it a day at 5 hours and so I just settled into a good pace and kept lapping enjoying the random company and chat from other riders out on track.

While the win was expected, I was honoured to receive the Tracy Robinson trophy for fastest female lap on course for the day. Tracy was an avid rider and supporter of Rocky Trail events who sadly lost her fight with cancer way too young. That certainly put the mechanical in perspective – regardless of broken hubs, lost time and having to run my bike back to transition – I was out racing doing what I love, which is something Tracy would have loved to do.

The Mont24

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 The Mont24 is a fantastic race, there’s just something magical that happens when you mix over 2000 happy mountain bikers with 20km of fantastic single track and a paddock full of tents, caravans, swags and tarps.

This year the weather was kind, those that arrived early on the Thursday were treated to an early taste of winter but by later on Friday the sun had come out and the rain and dust mixed to form hero dirt on the trails.

Morning dawns at the Mont24

This year both Tim and I joined the Newy Coghead crew and entered a team of mixed 6, which was formed to be competitive in overall standings. Normally in mixed 4s riding in a 6 was going to be a little different in terms of tactics, it can also be a hotly contested division depending on which sponsored riders come out to play. Unfortunately not long out from the race we lost a rider to illness and so we were just five come Saturday morning as the fog lifted from the campsite.

First lap decisions were made easier this year with the run replaced by an extra couple of kilometres of firetrail riding, about time event organisers realised that if we wanted to run we would enter city2surf! We sent Stu out first, despite being not on top form he still smoked most of the field and came through fairly well placed from first lap giving Ian “Bill Smith” a clear track – at least until he caught the slower people still completing lap one. Unfortunately he had a passing incident on course and henceforth became known as Kill Bill, he had to explain himself to the race directors but it was all deemed unfortunate but Kosher and we kept racing. Both Stu and Kill Bill put out fast sub 55-minute laps and Tim went out next with my prediction of a 58-minute lap proving to be spot on.

Team planning is serious business

Going out 4^th rider I was hoping traffic would have cleared a little but I still seemed to be doing a lot of passing on the gentle climb out of transition. The course this year utilised an adult sized mechano set to build a bridge allowing a figure-of-eight configuration. This meant we headed out into previously uncharted trails for the Mont24 in the Far East of Kowen. Fast and flowy descents were awesome fun but also seemed to attract trains of riders, as passing was difficult in these sections where even “slower” riders were still moving fairly quickly.

The single track itself was Kowen goodness, fast and smooth hard pack with tree roots, flowy corners and even the addition of some interesting boardwalk A-lines. One climb in particular seems to suck all your speed and send your heart rate sky high but mostly the climbing was gentle and the descents whoop-worthy.

The 29er dually was a fantastic steed for the course, while rear suspension was perhaps not strictly necessary, it took the roughness out of the roots and small rocks and the bike just seemed to maintain momentum.

Ready for race start - the motley crew!

Soon the track returned to more familiar trails, the descent down Kowalski slide show is always a favourite and to finish with the descent down beer garden almost makes you want to do a double… almost – the lap was 20km long, that’s a long double!

Coming into transition I was just a touch over an hour, and sent Keith out onto his first lap of his first ever mountain bike race. At this stage in the event the leader boards are misleading so I skipped the results tent and instead hit up the massage tent for some legwork – bliss!

There’s a special kind of time zone at 24hour races, everything revolves around lap times and transitions… eating, sleeping, toilet breaks, clothing changes… it all revolves around “when am I due out again” rather than social norms. Back at camp the usual activities were afoot with bikes on work stands, lubed up, dusted off, and lights being fitted.

Consistency is the key!

I hadn’t used my new bar light before, it’s a 1200 lumen GloWorm light and a fair bit brighter than my AyUps at 400 lumen. A testament to the light then that this next lap was my fastest of the race, it was also the fastest female night lap of the whole race. I think it had something to do with having a little less traffic, still having fresh legs and having now seen the course once but in the end I was gutted to realise I’d crossed the line the time of one hour and one second – that one hour barrier would elude me for the whole race!

Now the differences of being in five became clear, we opted to stick with single laps overnight whereas I’ve always had to do a long and cold double somewhere in the middle of the night before. With a shorter break off the bike I opted for more massage and lie down rather than attempting to sleep and felt remarkable fresh for my next lap around midnight, surprising myself with another lap of just over an hour – so far my laps were all within about 40 seconds of each other.

Early in the morning the fog rolled in, as it always does at the Mont – it hung there suspended in the beams of your bar lights or as a large orange cloud around the spotlights for the toilets. It condensed and dripped off the multitude of gazebos and awnings and it made everything just a little more chilly. It also made dawn late, and my predawn lap stayed a lot darker than it otherwise would have been.

Overnight we had kept things on track, Stu had one puncture but that just meant his lap time was similar to us other mortals and the rest of us kept up consistent times. We were in first position with around half an hour on second place come dawn, then the other team started playing tactics.

They had three fast guys on their team who were just slightly faster than Stu and Kill Bill, their other teams members were slower with two guys a bit slower than me and their girl a good 7-8 minutes slower than me. At around 6am they pulled their 3 slower teams mates off the track and cycled through their fast guys in attempt to pull back the half hour we had on them.

Deb helped the boys win over 40s mixed 6s as well!

We would have been safe except that in our 3^rd last lap Tim had a puncture and lost around 8 minutes, which meant I went out on second last lap later than expected. I pulled out yet another consistent lap and came back 12 minutes before cut-off to send Keith out on a nail-biting last lap. Second place came through with one second to spare and sent their fastest rider out to chase Keith, all we could do was wait and calculate lap times hypothesising about the finish. In the end Keith brought it home, just two and half minutes ahead of the chasing team – what a way to end your first ever mountain bike race!

So there we go, 1^st place in mixed 6s with five riders – we all completed 5 laps each and all my five laps were within 54 seconds of each other. I got fastest female night lap and 5 of the top 13 fastest female laps overall in the race. Awesome work  

Capital Punishment XCM 100km

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Capital Punishment takes in some fantastic Canberra singletrack in one 100km hit, initially touted to be the first race of the 2013 XCM series it was bound to draw a strong field. Yet with the recent collapse of the series (hopefully to be resurrected later this year) it became a little harder to predict who would be racing in the pointy end of the female field.

With only three females entered in elite I upgraded from age group category to elite the night before the race. The thing I was most nervous about was that being in elite meant starting in the first race wave, elite plus those who rank themselves in the top 10% of the overall field. Starting out in Kowen forest means you head into single track fairly early in the race and was worried that there would be a lot of fast guys behind me wanting to get past.

Canberra was incredibly kind with the weather this year, not only was it dry but the 7am start was very mild by Canberra standards, I lined up near the back of the first wave start and pretty soon the gun had gone and we off and racing. I had my eye on two of the other elite girls, Nienke Oostra and Michelle Ainsworth, and entered the single track just a couple of riders back from Michelle.

Despite my worries about the fast wave start, I found myself enjoying the pace of the single-track conga-line. I even found myself calling track on a few guys who were obviously not top 10% material. The Kowen single-track rocks, it’s flowy, bermy and today it was also very dusty and before long everything was coated with powder fine dust. A quick lap of some Kowen trails and we headed under the Kings Hwy and into the Sparrow Hill trails, the whole time I was keeping pace with Michelle who was still about 3 riders ahead of me. Nienke was somewhere behind and of course Jenny Fay was out in front.

Then I saw Tim stopped on the side of the track ahead and called out to him to see if he was ok, he’d had a flat and was fixing it so I kept and into the next smooth corner… not so smooth it would seem, something snagged my rear tyre and there was the sudden sound of rushing air. I stopped and my rear had suffered yet another sidewall tear, much smaller than the last time, and it had almost sealed with sealant. In the interests of time I tried reinflating with CO2 but annoyingly the tear refused to seal. By this stage the elite girls were gone and people from the wave starts behind we starting to come through, I pulled out tyre levers and my tube and set to work.

Back on the bike I knew I had lost serious time, Sue Thompson had come through and she’d started at least one wave start behind me. I started chasing, but now I was in a much slower area of the field and getting past groups of 4 or 5 riders in single-track was getting difficult and time consuming.

A few minutes later and I passed the first timing mat, the snazzy electronic timing tells me that at this point in the race my virtual position was 562^nd overall and 23^rd female, and compared to the people I was keeping pace with before the flat I had lost about 12 minutes.

We headed back to Kowen and I continued to claw my way back through the field, passing scores of riders on the single-track and blasting past people on the firetrail. There were several longer sections of fireroad in Kowen and a moderate head wind on some of them, at one point I came up behind a train of 5 or 6 riders, all happily sitting on the wheel of a female rider who was putting in the hard yards. I hope what I said shamed those boys into pulling a turn on the front, but unfortunately I was on my own as everyone riding my pace was still well up ahead.

The first feed station this year was well within Kowen and I passed that and over the second set of timing mats. By this stage I’d clawed back over 200 places, sitting in a virtual 329^th and 9^th female, but still far from the 3^rd female position I’d been sitting in before the flat. I say virtual position as the staggered wave starts make it impossible to know on the ground where you stand compared the person you’re passing, the timing takes all that into account but it does make you feel a little like you’re chasing ghosts in the actual race.

Somewhere in the next section before leaving Kowen I caught up to Sue Thompson on the trails, but I knew she still had a good few minutes on me due to being a later wave start. I kept just pegging people back, overtaking were I could and kept thinking that I had to keep fighting because with only 4 elite girls it would only take one mechanical for me to make the podium.

Popping out of Kowen and across the road into defence land means a good section of well-formed fire road. I locked out my suspensions and let those 29er wheels do their rolling thing, really wishing that I’d had people my speed to work with. I pushed hard, no point leaving anything in the tank – either I could catch those girls or I would know that I had pushed my hardest trying.

Finally through defence land we entered Mt Majura, a sad sight this year as roadwork and recent logging meant that the single track was gone and we were tracking straight through on firetrail. One final firetrail pinch and we crossed another set of timing mats, these ones designating the start of the untimed section through Canberra’s suburban streets. Looking at the timing, this were I passed Sue Thompson in terms of race time, I’d moved up to 6^th female and 230^th overall.

I could finally back off, eat and drink and head behind the nearest tree for a pee. It’s an odd feeling having an untimed section in a race, each year I struggle to get going again after it and this year I had been planning on riding straight through at a moderate pace. However with my rear tyre at about 15psi with a tube in I knew I was heading for a good pinch flat at Stromlo, so I was on the search for a track pump. Unfortunately I couldn’t see one in the feed station so I kept going despite the party atmosphere with all the supporters and riders hanging out in the sun.

We had chosen to stay with friends who were riding the 50km, they also live pretty much on the untimed section, so I headed there and swapped out my camelbak for a bottle and refuelled for the last 30km. Luckily Beth had left the garage remote in the letter box so I could raid the garage for a pump and spare CO2.

With more air in the rear and spare CO2 in case of further disaster, I set off again up the final stretch of untimed section to the Black Mountain climb. This climb is a little nasty to legs that have cooled down in the 55 minutes allowed for the untimed section, but mine felt ok as I pushed on up the climb and around the firetrails with their loose gravel and sand. The course in previous years has been fairly flat and fast between Black Mountain and Stromlo so it starts to feel like you’re on the home straight.

It was a bit of surprise then to come into the Arboretum (which Tim tells me is pronounced Ah-bor-eee-tum, but I kept trying to add an extra syllable in there somewhere) and turn a sharp right up a nasty little climb. The three guys in front of me were walking and from the feeling in my own legs I can only guess that they might have found that climb fairly cramp inducing. Not content with one climb, the course continued around the back of the Arboretum with several rolling climbs – definitely nastier than previous years.

Finally however that was over and I crossed the river and onto the final stretch of bike path to Stromlo. I passed a few girls for the second time who must have spent less time in the untimed section than me and pushed on to the gate into Stromlo which lead us into what was the red loop at the Scott24.

Not long into the singletrack and I came up behind a man and his young son, not connected with the race in anyway who had decided to ride a 100km race track… not impressed. They let me pass on the firetrail, how nice of them!

Feed station three was at the base of the standard Stromlo singletrack climb, another set of timing mats by now I was in 5^th overall female place, 10 minutes off Nienke although of course I had no idea of that at the time. All I knew was I just had to get up Stromlo and then down and I was done, I pushed hard and according to Strava got one of my fastest times up Stromlo despite having 90km in the legs. In fact I pulled back about a minute and a half on Nienke just on the climb and another 30 seconds on the descent but the race just wasn’t long enough to pull back the other 8 minutes which separated us in the end.

The descent down Stromlo is a blast, a great way to finish a race. I had a fairly clear run and let the bike go, using every opportunity to make up time. Then finally it was all over and I was on the crit track powering for home finally crossing the line in 5^th overall female and 179^th overall. A great result but a bittersweet finish, knowing that my ride time without the flat would have placed my 3^rd overall and on the elite podium.

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.