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Post by andrewearlwood on Jan 31, 2024 4:52:49 GMT 8
Nay protriathletes.org/media-releases/europeanin-announces-t100-triathlon-world-tour/First impressions: 1. A total money pool of $7million is a step up from the ~$4 million in PTO Open prize money and bonus pool of previous years, BUT is spread thin with each PTO race only worth $250K in individual prize money with first place getting $25K, well down from $100K for the PTO Open races. This is obviously compensated by the fact that the winner will be compensated for just turning up and will earn good points towards a share of the end of season bonus pool. However the fact remains that the series winner will have to work a lot harder - over a full 8 month period - to earn about what Ash made in 2022 and 2023 from racing only three PTO races each year OR what Blu did last year from 3 races that he fitted into his very tight schedule as little more than a side hustle (ie. he made $50K, $35K, $100K plus the $120K end of season bonus). 2. we are unlikely to ever see a true ‘best of best’ race at any stage during the PTO season. 8 months and eight races is too long for athletes to peak for each event, so it’s going to become tactical. Some athletes will go ‘all in’ for early peak performances, and hope to hang on for some other solid finishes during the season and perhaps pill off a second peak performance period in October-Nov. a heck of a lot of athletes will choose to simply turn up at individual PTO races in OK shape and get a pay day before peaking for other races outside the PTO series that offers as much or more prize money per race and/or more individual prestige (ie. Roth, IM WC and 70.3 WC). Not to mention the Olympics. 3. Overall, I really can’t help thinking that the PTO would have achieved MORE with LESS; ie. have a 5 or maximum 6 race series, with each race carrying $500K in prize money; with each race scheduled in such a way as to promote the realistic possibility of seeing ‘the best’ race ‘the best’ in pretty top level fitness. In my view, starting the PTO series in about May, with the first race then followed by three other races space 3-5 weeks apart and then - after the Olympics and traditional big race/championship season races are done (ie.Roth, European Ironman Champs, IM WC, ITU Long Course Champs etc) reconvene for two end of season races, with the very last carrying around double points. 4. Do we really need two end of season races in the Middle East? Really? Also, no race in Australia. I really would have thought that Townsville hosting a T100 round as part of the world multisport champs on 23-25 August would have been a no brainer. Especially given that the provision race schedule has empty sports on both the Friday afternoon and Al day Saturday before the ITU Lobg Course Champs on Sunday, 25 August. This worked well in the last two PTO seasons (ie. Ibiza last year and with the Collins Cup in 2022). 5. With individual PTO races ‘only’ offering $250K in prize money, now would be a good time for Ironman to up the anti and increase prize money at each of their four premier Regional Championship Ironman races to $250K, and to also break with tradition and offer up to ten top athletes appearance money and all expenses paid travel and accomodation allowances to each of the regional champs to put the pressure back on the PTO. Also increase the prize money to the 70.3 regional champs to over $100K and from 2025 onwards restructure their Ironman Tour series to include all Regional Champs and each of the two World Championships (It is bizarre that Ironman South Africa isn’t part of the Pro Tour, but piss ant races like Vittoria and Lake Placid are. Perhaps pre-existing scheduling problems precluded SA being included this year - as it is only a week before Texas - but why not include the iconic and historically significant IMNZ as a substitute? No scheduling problems with that race being included. Prizemoney for NZ would only have to be increased by $25K to put it on par with Lake Placid or Vittoria (and it already has 3 pro qualifying slots allocated to it). |
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Post by andrewearlwood on Jan 31, 2024 9:04:52 GMT 8
These are the races:
9-10 March – Miami T100
13-14 April – Singapore T100
June TBA – California T100
27-28 July – London T100
28-29 Sept – Ibiza T100
19-20 Oct – Lake Las Vegas T100
16-17 Nov – Dubai T100
29-30 Nov – Grand Final – location to be announced soon
Leaving aside that IMO there are just too many races, with a simple set of tweaks the PTO Calendar could be just about perfect. These tweaks would be:
1. Move Las Vegas to 23-24 March (ie. two weeks after Miami, so that European, Asian and antipodean based athletes could do both in the one trip. If however Lake Las Vegas is too cold in March, move the race to June - two weeks on either side of California for the same reasons. In fact I think it would be great if they simply ran the three North American races as a ‘triple header’ - after Singapore - from about early May until late June. IF they did that then contracted athletes could actually go ‘all in’ with an early season peak period (April to June) before going into a mid season hiatus and the working toward a late season super peak for the ‘championship season’ (which would also include both European rounds, whatever Ironman race an athlete wants to target - if any - and the season ending races. A series of early season PTO races might entice some Olympic athletes as well…
2. Move Ibiza forward by four (4) weeks to 31 August-1 September.
3. Merge the two middle eastern races into one ‘grand final’ in Mid November offering double points and double prize money.
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Post by prince on Jan 31, 2024 13:17:15 GMT 8
At quick glance I thought this might be the end of Ironman
At the end of the day, the pto is about viewership. If they can’t get decent streaming/tv numbers and subsequent advertising or media deals then it may not last. Remember the pto don’t necessarily turn everything too gold. Just look at the Collin’s cup. Where is that this year and I can’t see that ever happening again. Sure they have some great races and good athletes for this year but I question is it sustainable. I think this will be a make or break year in my opinion
Ironman on the other hand are such a strong brand and is known to the average non triathlete out there as is Kona. Plus Ironman are about participation for the age groupers and still don’t have trouble filling races and rolling in the revenue.
It sure will be ptos year this year and those athletes like Lionel and skipper would be licking their lips
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Post by andrewearlwood on Jan 31, 2024 14:10:42 GMT 8
At quick glance I thought this might be the end of Ironman At the end of the day, the pto is about viewership. If they can’t get decent streaming/tv numbers and subsequent advertising or media deals then it may not last. Remember the pto don’t necessarily turn everything too gold. Just look at the Collin’s cup. Where is that this year and I can’t see that ever happening again. Sure they have some great races and good athletes for this year but I question is it sustainable. I think this will be a make or break year in my opinion Ironman on the other hand are such a strong brand and is known to the average non triathlete out there as is Kona. Plus Ironman are about participation for the age groupers and still don’t have trouble filling races and rolling in the revenue. It sure will be ptos year this year and those athletes like Lionel and skipper would be licking their lips All the top 15 female athletes took a contract, whereas in the men’s division the following were not interested: Blu Iden Lange sanders skipper I reckon that if the likes of Von Berg, Laidlow, Ditlev, Chavalier and Baekkegard had not already prequalified for Kona they may have had second thoughts about taking a contract as well. If the women were racing Kona and not Nice and the likes of Annie, Lucy, Sky etc had not already prequalified they might also have had second thoughts about a PTO contract. Also, if you look at the actual money on offer, for athletes with a ironman performance bias there really isn’t much extra for them in committing to a PTO season: sure they get in effect ‘a salary’ but there is more travel involved, and if they are not better than mid field they would be much better off specialising in ironman, and cleaning up on prizemoney and Ironman’s own bonus pool. In fact I wonder whether Leon is just planning on turning up at PTO races simply to collect his minimum prizemoney and to validate his PTO salary but still planning on specialising in 3-4 ironman races a year as he main goal. |
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Post by prince on Jan 31, 2024 16:16:12 GMT 8
So does it mean that Iden and Blu can’t race a pto race or can they get a wildcard. If they do so, I wouldn’t be surprised if they become champions in both based on their abilities.
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Post by andrewearlwood on Jan 31, 2024 16:43:17 GMT 8
So does it mean that Iden and Blu can’t race a pto race or can they get a wildcard. If they do so, I wouldn’t be surprised if they become champions in both based on their abilities. Yes: and one would expect they would be offered any wildcard that came available if they put their hand up for. However, it is clear that Olaf Bu and the boys have had a long term plan for 2024 and they are not for turning on account of this new series. Next year is a different story. From their public comments earlier this month the following seems clear: 1. Gustav is hoping that his Achilles injury resolves this month and he gets a wildcard start to the three key WTS races that double as Norway’s remaining ‘selection races’: Norway won’t qualify 3 male athletes, and while Blu is assured of the first spot, Iden has to impress the selectors to a greater degree than Stornes or the other dude who was better than Gustav last year. This will be a big ask, but even if the Achilles resolves it means that he won’t be available for the PTO until after June, and hence will miss too many races to earn enough points to end up winning the championship. 2. In addition to point 1, from recent speculation, it appears that Iden’s ‘Plan B’ this year, if he doesn’t get selected for the Olympics but is otherwise healthy, involves Roth, Kona and Taupo. Perhaps some more Ironman series races to bag their bonus pool. Think about it: a healthy Gustav Iden could win Roth, two regional Ironman races, Kona and Taupo and hence the Ironman bonus pool, hence earning as much as the likely PTO series winner. 3. Blu is zoning in like a T-800 terminator on his triple crown of Olympics-Kona-Taupo this year, and if he pulls that off he would stand to earn more than the PTO series winner (especially when one considers his likely sponsor bonuses). That being said, I can see both Gustav and Blu going the line in Ibiza and the two November PTO races. |
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Post by andrewearlwood on Feb 1, 2024 8:57:14 GMT 8
So Lucy has announced that she won’t be attempting to defend her IM WC Title in Nice this year - “all in” on the PTO T100 series (a phrase she used last year when Ibiza was announced) means exactly that: she is exclusively racing PTO events this year apparently.
One wonders whether the race scheduling has anything to do with this: despite my earlier reservations about the PTO series (and noting once again, with feeling, that there are just too many races scheduled) it is possible that the scheduling issue has little to do with it. After all, Lucy could have simply skipped Ibiza and still have had 8 weeks of full preparation after PTO T100 London to prepare for Nice. That would still leave her with 7 PTO races on the calendar to fulfil her contractual obligations and accumulate points to win the overall series title.
I think the real reasons for Lucy skipping Nice probably comes down to a combination of a few factors, including the following:
- She went really deep into the well at Kona last year and running a full marathon with a calf muscle that had completely unzipped really hurt her psychologically more than she’s been prepared to admit. Allied to that was her crazy intensively focused Kona preparation in the 8 weeks leading into Kona -up to 60km in the pool, coupled with a twenty hours a week in Rhys’s dad’s converted boxing gym for all her strength, cycling AND running work must have been in itself a complete mind-f*ck.
- Nice will need a completely different approach for prefect preparation: lots of outdoor cycling, a big increase in bike handling skills and time on course; which would mean establishing a completely different base training camp in southern France - which is outside her established routine of rotating between Lanzarote and London. All in the middle of an eight month hectic PTO season.
- Now that she has finally won ‘the big dance’ - having come 2nd in four successive starts she may well be feeling that a title defence in Nice is somewhat anticlimactic. One thing that has been interesting about Lucy’s Ironman career is that she HAS been prepared to mix it up with other challenges - tipping a toe in pure swimming for the 2021 GB olympic trials, her incredibly strong 5th place debut at WTS Leeds, the Arena games, Super league, and other WTS events. So, it is understandable that she is looking for another challenge; especially since her ‘Kona Defence’ really isn’t until 2025. Furthermore, there ARE rumours of World Triathlon and the PTO lobbying the IOC to run a 100km triathlon from the LA Games; provided World Triathlon stays within an acceptable total athlete cap (currently 110 athletes) it is likely that the IOC would welcome hosting extra triathlon competitions as Triathlon has turned out to be one of the most popular olympic events. Lucy may well be looking to specialise NOW with a view to being selected for Team GB in 2028.
- Going back to the scheduling issue: it probably doesnt matter too much that Lucy would either have to skip Ibiza - or race it completely gassed from Nice - as much as it does that she would have to validate her entry; either by racing an ironman in the first half of this year OR two 70.3 events.
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Post by prince on Feb 1, 2024 9:51:09 GMT 8
i am thinking Nice will be joke the year. Lucy clearly values Kona as the real Ironman as i think do many other athletes. I might be wrong but i don't think so.
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Post by andrewearlwood on Feb 1, 2024 10:26:03 GMT 8
i am thinking Nice will be joke the year. Lucy clearly values Kona as the real Ironman as i think do many other athletes. I might be wrong but i don't think so. I actually think that even though they are signed to the PTO that Annie, Laura and Daniela will really prioritise Nice this year. All of them are close to the end of their professional careers and each of them have a huge potential motivation to go ‘all in’ for Nice. There are 8 full weeks after T100 London to prepare for Nice, so I expect that they - and the likes of Sky Moench, Kat Matthews and - if the PTO series isn’t going well for her - Chelsea Sodero - will focus on the WC. Enough for it to be a great race, IMO. |
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Post by andrewearlwood on Feb 2, 2024 7:02:13 GMT 8
Doing a deeper dive into the schedule of this series, and I think we are going to see quite a number of middle tier 100km athletes actually double up and even prioritise the Ironman Series. To illustrate the point I’ll use Sky Moensch as an example.
Sky has legitimate ambitions to podium one day at an Ironman WC (having finished 4th, 7th and 9th at the last three; having also won some pretty big IM races outside the WC and finishing 2nd at Frankfurt last year). However, looking at the stacked fields at the PTO - and her past performances - she will be flat out racing for a top 10 in any one of those races. It is more likley that she will finish 11-20th at each of the minimum 6 races that she is contracted to do - thus earning a flat $2,500 minimum for each. It is also likley that she will finish towards the bottom of the overall series and hence only earn a flat $15K bonus. $30K in all (on top of her rumoured $75K contract). Not bad, but not great either.
However, if juggled her races strategically - NOT racing outside North America until mid June (hence skipping PTO Singapore), in addition to PTO Miami and California she could also easily race 70.3 Oceanside, IM Texas, 70.3 Chattanooga and perhaps - if the rumours are correct and the California round will be held in conjunction with Alcatraz on 8-9 June - fly to Cairns for the Regional IM Champs the next weekend BEFORE shifting to a European Base for IM Vittoria (assuming she doesnt do Cairns) in early July, PTO London at the end of July and then IM Nice WC and perhaps even back up for PTO Ibiza the following weekend.
By that stage of her racing year she might have won or podiumed two Ironman Champs and finished top 5 or have podiuming at Nice. Plus two fairly highly ranked finishes at two 70.3 events that also appear on the Ironman Series calendar. therefore she would be a lock for a top 5 finish in the Ironman series (and at least a $50K end of season Ironman Series bonus payment) AND have earned over $100K from Ironman in Prize money.
She could then wrap up her season by cherry picking from the last three PTO races to fulfill her contractual obligations to the PTO and perhaps even the 70.3 WC in Taupo. Best of all - top finishers at these Ironman Races are her best bet of finishing in the top 6 (after the top 10 PTO series finishers are taken out of the equation) and hence scoring another PTO contract for 2025.
I can also see Magnus Ditlev taking a similar approach: racing IM Texas instead of Singapore, IM Frankfurt in between PTO London and Ibiza, skipping PTO Las Vegas because of Kona being held the next weekend and wrapping up the year with the PTO races in the Middle East (would he also throw in a couple of 70.3 races on the Ironman Series as well?). I think the likes of Rudy and Baekkegard may also be attracted to this approach to the season.
Racing both the PTO series and Ironman would mean a minimum of 10 races spread over 9 months. A tall order, but one can see athletes who have PTO contracts but aernt really going to trouble the score board with consistent top 5 finishers AND who are guns at Ironman giving it a crack.
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Post by andrewearlwood on Feb 2, 2024 7:09:36 GMT 8
Having dropped the prize money for individual PTO races from $600K (which itself was down from $1 million in 2022) how does the PTO justify keeping each race as a ‘Diamond level’ race for the purposes of calculating PTO points? Surely they should be only worth ‘Platinum level’ status? Given that last year the 70.3 WC was only a Platinum level race when it carried $375K in prize money.
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Post by prince on Feb 2, 2024 9:00:00 GMT 8
To me, i have my doubts that we will actually see the best racing the best, apart from a few of the PTO races and Kona., or those who will turn up and pull out to save the legs for another race. The potential of that is people may switch off. So many questions and all i can say, it can't be good for triathlon long term. I have heard Sam Renouf give lip service to say he hasn't made the scheduling purposely to conflict with Ironman, but i call BS on this and i think this might be why they were so late putting the schedule out.
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Post by andrewearlwood on Feb 2, 2024 9:05:45 GMT 8
To me, i have my doubts that we will actually see the best racing the best, apart from a few of the PTO races and Kona., or those who will turn up and pull out to save the legs for another race. The potential of that is people may switch off. So many questions and all i can say, it can't be good for triathlon long term. I have heard Sam Renouf give lip service to say he hasn't made the scheduling purposely to conflict with Ironman, but i call BS on this and i think this might be why they were so late putting the schedule out. Agreed. The PTO is at grave risk of completely diluting their brand. I mean are we really ever likely to see ‘the best’ race ‘the best’ in their peak form at any stage this year? Everybody is going to cherry pick the PTO races in the first half of the year, and come November, even if the guns all turn up to race in the Middle East, most of them will be completely gassed by then. This is why having 3-4 races in the lead up to ‘the championship season’, plus one ‘grand final’ at the end of it (or in the case of this year say 3 weeks before the 70.3 WC) would have presented a much stronger package overall. |
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Post by prince on Feb 2, 2024 11:17:16 GMT 8
I think you are distracted Andrew Have you forgotten your hero is racing at Tasmania this weekend. Haven’t seen a post from
You about this and am very disappointed
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Post by andrewearlwood on Feb 4, 2024 11:53:47 GMT 8
I think you are distracted Andrew Have you forgotten your hero is racing at Tasmania this weekend. Haven’t seen a post from You about this and am very disappointed Haha. I’ve caught up. Wurfy finished a strong third. Was robbed of a real chance of contesting for the win by a rear puncture with 20km to go on the bike. Ran about the same time as the winner as well. Cam also won a local Olympic distance race in Hobart two weeks ago - clocking a sub 32 minute split for the 10km run. |
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