#109: T100 v. World Tri *or* T100 + World Tri?

How many big races can you pack into a weekend?

issue #109: Oct. 16, 2024

All-sporters, I’m headed out to the Big Island next week as my last trip of the year (hallelujah!) and even though it’s mid-October we’ve still got, by my count, four big races left in the calendar.

And then I hope everyone takes a break before they start trying to cram in all the races again for next year, because there are going to be casualties of this schedule soon and wouldn’t you rather it not be you.

I also sent out this past weekend some thoughts from lots of different people for a story I had worked on about what’s changed in triathlon in five decades and what needs to change from here.

It’s a question that I have trouble wrapping my head around a bit, because that presumes we have any idea what anything is going to look like in a decade from now or even in two years from now!

- Kelly

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Both in one weekend: Vegas or Spain?

I can not be the only one who found it funny that the PTO and World Tri announced a 12-year partnership a week before they both have different competing huge races on the calendar in different places. No, just me? OK.

What does this 12-year partnership actually mean? Whew, I dunno, your answer probably depends on how much you think they’re both going to be operating under the same business models in 2036 that they are right now in 2024.

It’s again no secret that the PTO is out for another round of funding and needs money (and long-term success to make that pay off). It’s also no secret that World Triathlon is struggling to find cities that will host races under their current funding model and their finances are becoming an increasing issue. Out of this deal, in theory: World Tri gets a cash influx and the possibility of attaching WTCS or World Cup events to host T100 cities; the PTO gets legitimacy with an official world title and the possibility of rules and anti-doping assistance.

But also 12 years just made me laugh and laugh. Like, sure, sure.

Photo: Janos Schmidt/World Triathlon

Official name: The World Triathlon Championship Finals Torremolinos-Andalucia — just don’t call it the World Champs

The bigger one this weekend: The World Tri World Champs, even though we don’t really call it that anymore.

The winner of the Championship Final in Spain will simply be the winner of the Finals; the world champion will be the winner of the overall WTCS series at the end of the Finals — which the Finals standings, worth more points, will determine.

(There are also U23, Juniors, Para, Age Group, and Mixed Relay world champs — which actually are all called the world championships.)

The Women

Beth Potter v. Cassandre Beaugrand (v. the dark horse Lisa Tertsch in third in the standings). Only 132 points separate all three (and a win is worth 1250 points in Spain), so sure Cassandre might be the favorite but, in truth, it’s any of theirs to take.

The French and British have also fielded their standard insanely full and competitive teams, while the U.S. is missing Taylor Knibb and Taylor Spivey — who are instead both in Vegas along with Flora Duffy (the highest ranked athlete not attempting to defend a previous world title). And, it should be noted Australia opted not to enter any women, which is dumb.

The Men

Did you know the British men haven’t won a world title since the Brownlees? The French have managed to snatch it away in a few recent surprise Grand Finals, haven’t they.

So, whereas the British women are almost definitely not going to be playing domestique for each other, all the men’s team efforts are likely to be to secure Alex Yee his world title. He’s 428 points ahead of Leo Bergere, which means barring disaster he really should win his first world championship. And, honestly, I think we’re all rooting for him — even though I know a lot of the Paris athletes had a bit of a down period and a sorta struggle post-Olympics to find motivation and be mentally in it, I think he’s back.

Full start lists for both here.

WATCH: On TriathlonLive - woman on Saturday at 6:20 a.m. PT/9:20 a.m. ET and men on Sunday at 7:45 a.m. PT/10:45 a.m. ET

And, meanwhile, somewhere near Vegas

Then, there’s the other big one this weekend: the final T100 race before the new Grand Final after the old Grand Final got canceled.

About 30 minutes outside of Vegas (where 70.3 Worlds used to be, if you remember Henderson), we’ll have the last U.S. stop of the tour this year. Curious if you’re racing it as an age-grouper, let us know how it is.

The Women

It’s hard not to imagine this is Taylor Knibb’s to lose, right? Which should push her into the #1 for the overall standings going into the Grand Final. (Current #1 Ashleigh Gentle, who had originally planned on skipping the trip to the U.S. from Australia and doing the last two Middle East races, decided to stick to her original plan even though one of those Mid East races got canceled — which is, really, a bit tough on athletes overall to be having to wing plans with all the changes mid-season.)

You’ve got more of the bigger names for the women here, because they’ve had a bit of a break from other big races and are ready to go (Paula Findlay, India Lee, Anne Haug, and Laura Philipp back after Nice). But you also had Lucy Charles-Barclay and Chelsea Sodaro pull out this week because of injuries and recovery.

See again: My note last week about questions around unmet contract obligations

The Men

With Men’s Kona a week later, it looks like the only person trying to do both is Pieter Heemeryck. (I originally thought more of them would use it as another U.S. race beforehand, but it seems many of the men are going old-school and putting all their chips on the Big Island.)

If I was going to guess it’d appear it’s Marten Van Riel’s on paper — though I suppose Youri Keulen could pull another pass-out-at-the-finish-line win and Sam Long should be in the mix — and then maybe Marten will realize and embrace that his destiny is in mid-distance not short-course.

Full start lists for both here.

WATCH: Women on Saturday at 8:15 a.m. PT/11:15 a.m. ET and men at 2 p.m. PT/5 p.m. ET on Outside Watch, PTO+, PTO’s Youtube, HBO Max, or Eurosport

Wildcards: Some of the big news ahead of the penultimate T100 is actually the wildcard situation.

Having seen the stipulations the PTO sent out to athletes about how they’ll select additional wildcard athletes for the Grand Final, there is a guarantee that any wildcard athlete who is in the top 10 rankings after Vegas + who did three series races will get an automatic Grand Final spot.

There is then a descending list of criteria to flesh out a Grand Final field if needed. (If it fills to 20 athletes with the auto-wildcards, then no additional athletes will be selected.) The descending criteria stipulate spots for additional wildcard athletes *or* for Olympic athletes who did not have the opportunity to race more — which is a hella funny clause and certainly leaves the door open to throw in someone wild.

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Men’s Kona gonna do man things

The Men’s Kona start list is officially out and it’s a big one. Says something when being the 2022 World Champ only gets you #4 on the bib list.

Of course, after the top 5-7 names, it does drop off in terms of bigness vibes, as championship races always do — but that doesn’t mean someone who’s been tapping at the door won’t break through. And, really, we’re all just happy to see The Norwegians back. If for no other reason than you can never tell if they’re actually insane or simply trolling all the triathletes or both at the same time.

Side point: I still maintain this parody about The Norwegians is one of the best and most under-appreciated triathlon things I’ve ever written

I think it’s notable that fewer of the top IM men signed T100 contracts, and even fewer of them are trying to do both the IM & T100 series. The inevitable outcome of this is that more of them will make it to the IM World Champs start line uninjured, more of them will be ready and peaked to go. I think, if I had to educated guess, it’s because the men tend to sign bigger sponsor contracts, which gives them the room to risk it bigger on one race, and the women are more used to scrapping and getting every piece of prize or contract money they can before it goes away. I also think, as evidenced by numbers, the potential payoff for that big IM World Champs win is bigger for the men — you win one of those as a European guy and you’re probably set — and so it makes the calculation more worth it. And then, of course, there’s still the Kona Myth factor. Or as my husband says about Men’s Kona: Hope springs eternal.

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Best of the rest

• IM Malaysia: A bit of a slower weekend this past weekend, but still Malaysia is a brutal event and Regan Hollioake won her third Ironman-distance event (out of five) of her first season, so kudos.

• NCAA Regionals: Took place in the West & the East for the varsity draft-legal female athletes to lock down their places at Nationals in Florida in a couple of weeks; sure, it’ll almost certainly be ASU again but it’s a little closer than it used to be

Results: IM Malaysia, World Tri Para Cup - Alhandra

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The -ish

Stuff from around our sports worth knowing about this week.

• Ironman’s pro schedule is out for next year. We’ve still got the usual problem of somehow even fewer full Ironmans in N. America & only five fulls period in the Pro Series outside of the World Champs. (Both facts that will make certain races packed and will make IM Texas appear more appealing than it really is.) But at least athletes can start making their plans! (Ironman)

• The week-long World Tri festival in Spain also includes the World Tri Congress, where they will select a new president and decide important World Tri things…

• Biggest news of the weekend, of course, was the new women’s marathon world record: 2:09:56!?! (**every emoji face**) For comparison: World Athletics says it’s the equivalent of a 1:59:37 men's marathon. And, yes, two things can be true: 1. The record both was inevitable and jumps in women’s racing still tend to come in big leaps because of history and improvements in training/tech (and tucking into the men’s field in Chicago had to have helped) and also 2. Sure, Kenya is in the midst of a doping crisis and Ruth Chepngetich has a manager who has also managed two other popped athletes. Can we be skeptical and excited at the same time? (Citius Mag/AP/Outside Run)

• Instead of the marathon, this guy ran 79x around his block in Chicago. (Runner’s World)

• Apparently, the Boston Marathon medical team integrated psychological assessments and mental health experts into their finish line response team. (Sports Medicine)

• Just in case you were worried that there were too few new pro track leagues and events to keep track of: Noah Lyles will race NFL star Tyreek Hill under the auspice of Terry Crews’ Super Serious company. Which is just a lot of things in one sentence. (MSN)

• The Taco Bell 50K attracted bigger crowds this year. And as I’d like to remind you all, since my husband and his friends did a Taco Bell loop of the city in San Francisco: Create your own finish lines. (Colorado Sun)

• FKTs are hot again and Eric Lagerstrom went after one of his own in Bend. (Instagram)

• We all know that Strava’s new AI coaching and “insights” are an example of exactly why I don’t think AI is anywhere close to replacing everything. But on the upside my Strava keeps just crashing, so there’s that anyway, and Strava posted a job to hire a new head of AI/machine learning — so either that whole thing really was rolled out without testing or someone got fired. (Fortune/Strava)

• The other big event of the weekend: Red Bull Rampage (also known as ‘the one where they bike off a cliff but somehow don’t die’). Plus, it was the first-ever women’s Rampage, after 17 years of advocates pushing to let women in and creating Formation (a women’s skills building camp and event). And the amount the women progressed in the last few years makes me feel like if you just invest then the athletes will follow. (Instagram/Free Hub)

• Marianne Martin was the U.S.’s first Tour de France winner in 1984, and she was in a bad accident last week. (Velo/GoFundMe)

• I don’t love Malcolm Gladwell but I do think there is a lot to mull about the evidence that places like Harvard (or other exclusive institutions) actually don’t want too large a minority or non-exclusive population to come in because it changes the “culture” of the group. And so then steps, articulated specifically and consciously, and then eventually built subconsciously into the structure, are taken to nominally allow only “enough” of people who are not like them. (Range Widely)

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One last thing

I’m now 100% considering making a Powerpoint presentation for next year’s race season.