issue #196: July 29, 2026
Thank you for all the notes last week in response to my news that Triathlonish is going independent again. I also appreciate that many of you want to support the newsletter. I actually turned off paid subscriptions back when I went full-time with Feisty since I didn’t have time anymore to do additional stories and the podcast had merged with Feisty Tri. I may ultimately bring back more reported stories and more different kinds of coverage, but for now: It’s just the FREE weekly Wednesday newsletter, and the best way you can support it is to share with other triathlon-ish friends.
For now, we’re just going to do what we do best: Get super in the weeds about triathlon.
- Kelly
It’s like a World Tour but for triathlon, duh
Do you get it yet.
T100/PTO + World Triathlon did a big embargoed announcement event on Friday, in London naturally because you still can’t convince Brits that London isn’t the center of the universe. And for people outside of triathlon the announcement was: Wow, a World Tour, just like tennis! And for people inside of triathlon it was: Here is the promised list of dates and locations for 2027; prize money and the Tier B series dates (ie. World Cups for short-course + Challenger events for mid-course) to be announced in September at the Spain Grand Finale.
T50
March 27-28: Abu Dhabi
April 24-25: Samarkand, Uzbekistan
May 15-16: Yokohama, Japan
June 5-6: Rome
July 16-18: Los Angeles » Yes, this is the Test Event
Aug. 21-22: London
Sept. 8-12: Hamburg — World Championship
Sept. 25-26: Weihai, China
Nov. 20-21: Tauranga, New Zealand
T100
March 20-21: Gold Coast, Australia
April 10-11: Singapore
June 5-6: San Francisco, California
Aug. 14-15: Vancouver, Canada
Sept. 18-19: Marbella, Spain
Nov. 26-27: Saudi Arabia
Dec. 10-11: Qatar — World Championship
Date TBD: French Riviera
Both genders will race at T50 races. T100 races will still alternate genders.
A quick reminder: The entire concept of the Triathlon World Tour is that the PTO (ie. T100 — ie. the 100km race brand) is merging with World Triathlon, and taking over the commercial arm of World Triathlon races (ie. WTCS and World Cup production, age-group races, and sponsorships. we think). This is meant to create a unified series with T50 replacing WTCS races and sitting alongside the top level of mid-course T100 races; there will then additionally be a tier below at each distance — which is where the Challenge acquisition comes in.
READ MORE: A Conversation with the World Tri President
Now back to the announcement…
What is the T50 distance?
Thank you for that question. It’s whatever they want it to be. It’s a state of being. It’s both Olympic distance and sprint distance races. For now.
Or as someone in a comment said: This is an awful lot of of work just to announce a partial rebranding of WTCS.
Back in June, I left my conversation with the PTO head with the distinct impression that they were going to shorten the Olympic distance to 50km (probably on the bike). Other people have also gotten that impression. I additionally got the impression that World Triathlon did not want them to shorten it and discussions were being had.
If T50 survives past LA28 (there’s a lot of letters and numbers for you), I fully expect it to standardize to 50km. They love their standardization. But that will not happen before the Olympics, because the Olympics doesn’t like it when you change things.
Why did they not combine race locations? Isn’t that the whole point of the “unified” World Tour?
I thought so. But “unified” is really in the branding and the selling, not in actually being unified. And, anyway, it probably turns out that putting on a global mass appeal commercial race series is harder than they thought. Who could have predicted.
Why are they keeping the genders split for some races but not others?
That brings us to: The Olympics doesn’t just let you change things, no matter how good you business talk.
Yes, the L.A. event on the calendar is the Test Event for the 2028 Olympics. Even if this is slightly confusing to me because generally speaking the Test Event is put on by the local organizing committee so that the organizers can also work through logistics. The Test Event also has specific requirements (like testing equivalent Paralympic races). So, maybe I’m being too in-the-weeds here, but I don’t fully understand how T50/the PTO is actually managing this race.
And, also, no, we don’t know the course for L.A. yet because options are still being debated with the city. I know some people think it’ll be modeled off the old L.A. Triathlon course, but that course 1. wasn’t that pretty on the bike and 2. went point-to-point across town. Personally, I expect something more loops and beach-like.
Back to: The Olympics doesn’t like it when you change things. There’s a whole multi-year process to change distances or events; events were literally just approved for the 2030 Winter Olympics. And the points qualification process for L.A. has already been approved, and supplying equal points opportunities for men and women at the same events is important. And World Tri actually does a good job showcasing both races and providing equal support. So, no, they could not have men at some Olympic points events and women at other ones.
Why keep alternating genders in T100 races then? Honestly, because they can’t fill double the number of fields yet, and they’re committed (to partners etc) to putting on xx number of races.
Race Ranger data from Roth
I’m still sort of split on whether or not making Race Ranger data public is good or bad or does anything other than create things for forums and podcasts to talk about.
But, if you want to, you can go through the report Challenge Roth put out with all the data. They’re maintaining that illegal draft time has gone down from last year (public shaming worked!), with a lot of caveats (they take out certain sections of the course, they do count yo-yo-ing).
So make of that what you want.
From the races
Boise 70.3: Kirsten Kasper can run! I mean I know, obviously, that she can run, but she has not always been thought of as a runner and maybe that was all of our mistake. And Sam Long, more well-known, can bike. There is, of course, something to be said for domestic U.S. races playing out differently than European races, but I don’t think that’s necessarily harder or easier, it just suits different athletes.
Poor Blake Harris couldn’t find his T2 spot, which also happened to me in my first race ever and then never happened again. And I am sure it will never happen to him again.
And Ari Klau explained the whole shoe thing.
WTCS London: Now, post-London I was left with just an idea, a thought: Maybe it’s time to try a different strategy than hoping to outrun Cassandre Beaugrand or Matt Hauser. To her credit, Taylor Knibb did try something different, and maybe if Tilly Anema hadn’t hit a cone and had stayed with Knibb they would have worked together for more of a gap, maybe. But, someone, please, try something.
Supertri Toronto: Last race to earn a spot to the mega finals for some of these young names. And also for Tyler Mislawchuk.
Results: Boise 70.3, WTCS London, Supertri Toronto, Challenge Turku, Trumer Triathlon
The -ish
Some of the things worth knowing about this week in our sports — or that I just think are interesting.
The Tour de France Hommes is over and what a three-week showcase of Tadej Pogačar it was. Apparently, the race organizers tried to come up with a race and a course that would not just be a showcase of Tadej Pogačar, but they mostly failed. (The Athletic/Escape Collective)
And, yes, with all the records he broke, which were set during the doping era, it has led a lot of people to wonder if he is also doping. (Personally, it doesn’t seem to me like he’s emotionally dependent enough on cycling to cheat. Take it or leave it.) But, hence, this has led to the 2 a.m. anti-doping tests. About which all I can think is: Sure, if doping tests could happen at anytime, and there was no expectation of privacy, then yeah, that’d probably cut down on doping. Also, if we shot anyone who was caught doping, then that’d probably cut down on it too. But you gotta have a reasonable give-and-take. (Bike Radar/BBC)
And speaking of doping, are you ready for some in-the-weeds ultrarunning insanity? A second Ultrarunner Dude On A Podcast has now admitted to using banned peptides, and ultrarunners are very split on how they feel about this — ranging from ‘anyone who violates the rules, even accidentally, should be banned from the sport forever’ to ‘who cares what amateurs do.’ Probably the reasonable interpretation is somewhere in between. (Instagram/Running Magazine/The Run Tough Mindset)
If you’re wondering wtf are peptides exactly, I also had to have Selene explain them to me. (Feisty)
This was an interesting addendum piece about trail running’s blind spots during its current boom. Which raised a good question: ‘What is one thing you are publicly celebrating that makes you nervous privately?’ And maybe sometime I’ll tell you what mine are for triathlon. (WE)
Paralympian Mo Lahna will be finishing his Across America Triathlon today in L.A. And you can run the finish with him around 1 p.m. at Windward Plaza in Venice and then join him at the Venice Run Club in the evening. (Instagram)
Apparently, the world record for the most super sprint triathlons in 24 hours is now 22 triathlons. (The Radavist)
The CrossFit Games were here in the Bay — the Bay Area Host Committee really doing a job convincing all these sports events to come to San Jose — and we had a new women’s champ and a lot of local news stories explaining what CrossFit is. (Muscle & Fitness)
I signed up for an off-brand Hyrox race (like a non-Ironman “half-iron-distance” triathlon) and Hyrox announced the first half of its expanded 2027 calendar with more races in the U.S. (Endurance.biz)
And if you haven’t been to a gym recently, fyi, the kids are going to the gym. (CNN)
Which brings us to: fitness as a luxury item. New but not exactly new. (LinkedIn/Culture Study)
Ironman U is getting a reboot and the general consensus seems to be: Natasha Van der Merwe good, Ironman U mixed. (Instagram)
Ahead of Northern California 70.3 — also quite the branding for the city of Redding, btw — there have been meetings with local businesses about how to prepare for athletes and what inventory/menu/hour adjustments to make for the event. And that means someone at Ironman actually took one of my idea suggestions (!) and is doing local business pre-race outreach. (The Shasta Scout)
New 70.3 in Portugal and you can now sign up for the full Ironman Oman.(Ironman/Instagram)
Weird outcome at the British AG Champs. (Instagram)
Steph Clutterbuck is dealing with Hashimoto’s now. (Instagram)
Meant to include this last week: Holly Lawrence is out with a run injury. (Youtube)
And it’s the Tour de France Femmes, starting on Saturday, and it is an excellent route this year. (Escape Collective)
We also did our last Feisty Tri podcast and had a super interesting interview with the woman swimming the whole 900-mile California coastline. (Apple Podcasts)
I got fed this headline by Google about getting inside the deadly dangerous world of Ironman and then Triathlete did the hard work of taking the New York Post at face value, which no one gets paid enough to do, and explaining why that headline is wack. (New York Post/Triathlete)
One last thing
Someone is probably trying to shut this down, but isn’t it at least a little fun.
I’m glad you’re continuing the newsletter!
Am I the only one thinking about what an obviously stupid idea it is to hold a long-distance event in Redding in mid-August? I mean OG Ironman Utah or Chicago Marathon without a heat emergency plan stupid. T&P to the athletes.