Earlier this year Auscycling announced that the 2021 Australian Cross-Country Marathon (XCM) National Championships would be contested in Western Australia, within the Dwellingup 100 (D100) event on September 18, 2021. You might remember a similar announcement in early 2020, but while the D100 event ran, there was no national title contested for XCM in 2020 due to border restrictions that prevented domestic travel to Western Australia.
The race route in Dwellingup shares a little with many of Australia’s popular marathons like the Otway Odyssey, Convict 100 and Cycle Epic. That is, they don’t do repeated laps of a shorter course. For about the past decade, the Australian XCM Championships have been contested on a lap-based course. While this has been as little as 3 laps of a long course, it’s also been as much as 5, depending on the course and location. Circuits like this can really assist racers vying for the win, as it makes feed and tech support a lot easier for supporters, and event staff.
However, it can take away from the adventure of a marathon race. Classic marathon routes like the Otway Odyssey and Cycle Epic use loops where the course does come back to a central location at least once, assisting with some logistics – and that’s exactly what the Dwellingup 100 does as well. And no matter what event distance you do, you don’t repeat the same section of trail.
Key course statistics for the Dwellingup 100
There are four different course options for anyone tackling the event, and some of the shorter courses are used for the National Titles and State Titles for younger riders.
D15 Joey: 15.8 kms with 146 metres of climbing.
D35 Wallaby: 35 km with 544 metres of climbing.
D60 Boxer: 61 km with 1325 metres of climbing (Under 19 state and national championship).
D100 Boomer: 103 kms with 2070 metres of climbing. (Seniors state and national championships).
With a course that offers a huge variety of trails, a considered route for racing, experience and event support, and an event with a long history of putting on a good show, it looks like the 2021 Australian XCM Championships have found a good home. Find more details on the event website.