The Dams Challenge returns in 2020! Choose your Challenge from the 2, 3 or 5 Dams distances and conquer one of the top 50 rides globally.

The Dams Challenge is fully supported and includes food and water stations along the course, nutrition supplies, motorbike marshals, first aid, broom wagon and more. You can enter the event as an individual rider.

Riders have a set amount of time to complete the challenge (the course closes at 17:00 hours). This means riders will need to travel at an average of at least 20km/h over the course, depending on stoppage time.

Courses and support checkpoints are subject to change, final versions will be advised in the official rider guide.

The event is a personal challenge and NOT a race – no place-getter prizes are awarded.

Key Dates

• Free jersey offer and early bird period concludes – midnight 31 December 2019
• Standard pricing Period starts – 1 January 2020
• Final day to purchase a Dams Challenge jersey, bib knicks or socks – 31 January 2020
• Standard pricing period concludes – midnight 23 March 2020
• Late pricing period 24 March – midnight 31 March 2020
• Final day to register – 31 March 2020
• Event Day – Sunday 5 April 2020

Start / Finish location: Champion Lakes Regatta Centre – Champion Lakes WA 6111

Date: Sunday, 5 April 2020

Start Times:

• 5 Dams Challenge from 6:00am
• 2 Dams Challenge from 7:00am
• 3 Dams Challenge from 7:30am
• Event cut-off 5:00pm

Rider Briefings will be held prior to each event, exact times TBC

There are NO allocated start times for participants.  Riders will be released in waves of approximately 20 riders every 30 seconds commencing with the 5 Dams Challenge riders.

PLEASE NOTE THE ORDER PERIOD FOR MERCHANDISE HAS NOW CLOSED. THE JERSEY SIZE SWAP PERIOD HAS ALSO FINISHED.

• Each check point will have water and nutrition
• Lunch is provided for 3 Dams and 5 Dams riders
• Motorbike marshals will patrol the course providing assistance as required
• St John Ambulance will be present to provide medical support
• Broom wagons will follow the last rider
• Check points and motorbike marshals will have tubes and gas cylinders which can be used and paid for after the event

Please note: Private support vehicles are not permitted as they cause unnecessary traffic congestion and inhibit the ability of official event support vehicles to efficiently navigate the course. Road closures will be in place around some check points and vehicles will not be permitted to enter.

Strict cut-off times at each check point are imposed.  If you do not pass through the check point before the nominated cut-off times you will be deemed to be out of the event.  Nutrition at the checkpoints will be stated in the Rider Guide when released. The 2 Dams Challenge has no required cut-off times as riders should complete the course before 5 Dams Challenge participants.

All check points and cut off times are subject to change. Please note these 2019 check points are noted below.

The Dams Challenge is NOT a race however we do time each rider.  The purpose for timing is to enable us to monitor your progress, locate you on the course and for your information.

Family and friends will be able to monitor your progress throughout the day with live-to-web streaming from check-points.

Due to the lack of communications in some areas not every check point will provide live results.  The final location of the timing stations will be announced in the rider packs.

Strava

Become a member of WestCycle’s Strava Club and track your progress against other Dams Challenge participants. You can upload your rides to WestCycle’s Strava Club by using your Garmin, iPhone or Android device.

The event had its genesis in 1998 and was first officially staged in 2010. It has quickly grown from little over 350 local riders to more than 2,000 participants from all over Australia and overseas.

The 5 Dams Challenge, that fabled endurance test for ageing cyclists, was conceived in a café on the terrace in Fremantle one Saturday morning in 1998. Was it possible to incorporate the five metropolitan dams into a single day’s ride? Intrepid rider Lindsay O’Brien thought so.

The following Tuesday he set out from Claremont, up the scarp at Lesmurdie and on to Mundaring. Then proceeding south to Serpentine, past the dam to the South West Highway and back to Claremont – 280km in just under ten hours.

Many different routes have since been used but all using the basic 5 Dams Challenge framework.

Solitude is the devil’s playground, so the ride is more enjoyable in a group. Many teams of riders have completed the ride, mainly motivated by Ian Pauley who initiated the Summer/Winter Solstice rides and has probably completed the ride more times than any other along with Graham Forward, Peter Gunzberg and Brian “Capo” Roberts.

The ride itself produces its own drama. The fatigue of ill-prepared riders brings out the best and the worst in them. The camaraderie such a ride invokes makes it a memorable experience.

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