The Minutes referenced by the USAT forum came from a meeting of the Mid Atlantic region's Board (www.usat-ma.org). The relevant excerpt is below:

"Regional championships – USAT Regional Coordinator Shannon Votruba wrote to us and congratulated us on the championship events we selected for next year. Semmel said he had been contacted about his youth event that has been selected for the youth grand prix and Vigorito said that the Columbia Triathlon has been selected as the intermediate distance event in our region for the intermediate grand prix. (Columbia Triathlon also will be the regional championships. )"

What possible rationalization is being used to select for a regional championship a race that will be sold out before the announcement of said selection is made? That is so bizarre. It's like selecting the championship after the race itself is over.

---

----------------------------------
"Go yell at an M&M"

I think your problem here is trying use the words "rational" and "USAT" in the same sentence.

To answer the second half of your question, the mention of KC as the '06 Nationals site is on the Columbia Tri website under the info for the open division. I suspect this is more of a cut and paste oversight from the previous year's website and not that Vigo has any sort of inside info on nationals.

Chris

Yes, I fall into that bad habit from time to time. I have difficulty with "Suspension of disbelief". Same at work.

I concur with your suspicion: there's a lot of info about Eagleman on the Web that, although on pages labeled "2006" apparently contain 2005-specific data.

---

----------------------------------
"Go yell at an M&M"

As i understand the rumors I've heard, the nationals will be in KC again, and on July 8th. They will probably make it the world qualifyier too, so now we can get those great mid summer 5 week notice fares to Europe for the worlds. I suppose it is some sort of bone they are throwing the race director for last years disaster, but funny thing is the race didn't lose any money. Have any of you gotten your entry fees back, or have the sponsors who paid gotten any of their money back? So it is the athlete that has lost on this deal by shelling out over a grand to go to this race that never happened, and now the athlete is losing out again, by USAT doing a repeat of the race no one wanted to do in the first place. That's unless of course you are getting letters of free entry fees for this years race...HA!!!!

And before all you locals there in KC start flaming, I have nothing against the race itself, it just should'nt be our national championship event. I would just like for once, to look foreward to the championship as being my top A++ race of the year, and not just some local event somewhere that I have to go to to qualify for worlds. Is it too much to ask?? Appears to be....

When I read that "70.3" article over at insidetri.com that said that the HalfMax (St. L in June) will combine with US Half Championship (KC in Sept) and be held near St. Louis in the fall, I began to suspect something like this. With the two halfs merging, UltraMax has a "hole" in their schedule in June and I suspected a world qualifier or national championship might be the reason.

But I want it to be before July 8th. That'll be my 45th birthday and I was hoping to race for a worlds slot in "stealth" mode ;-)

<< But I want it to be before July 8th. That'll be my 45th birthday and I was hoping to race for a worlds slot in "stealth" mode ;-)


starting in 2006 you will race in the age group that corresponds with your age based on December 31st, just like at Worlds and a lot of other countries.

---

Mike Plumb, TriPower MultiSports
Professional Running, Cycling and Multisport Coaching, F.I.S.T. Certified
http://www.tripower.org

Hey Mike, So can you tell us what happened at the Board members meeting this past weekend? Did you get any of the issues sorted out that we are all waiting anxiously to here about? What's the general feeling around the office there, do they all think they are doing a great job and patting themselves on the back? I hear that USAT is maybe going to try and compete with Active.com on tri registration. Bad move if you ask me, but then no one has......I mean really, they have a mandated monopoly on the orginization of US triathlon, it makes them a ton of money, why go and piss off all these other orginizations by getting into their business. How much are we going to spend on lawyers to defend against all the lawsuits these knuckleheds are bringing down on us? (WTC< ACTIVE<) Let's Stick to the core business, US......

If they can do registrations for the same or cheaper than active.com, I would much rather my processing fees went to the triathlon monopoly.

well we're not going to start competing against Active.com, unless of course they start offering event insurance as they are rumoured to be starting, then it might be a different ballgame. Nationals will again be in KC on July 8th. There are so many other good places to hold the race, but finding a combination of location, timing and a race director to put it on is incredibly hard. Duathlon qualifiers is a problem, but we don't make the schedule and unfortunetely all of the key events fall in the spring this year. Not like we can mandate when these races place themselves on the calender. What else is there? Let me know and I'll try to answer it.

---

Mike Plumb, TriPower MultiSports
Professional Running, Cycling and Multisport Coaching, F.I.S.T. Certified
http://www.tripower.org

Can you say if they have chosen the Grand Prix OLY race for the South Midwest region yet?

Marble Falls Triathlon in Marble Falls TX in July

---

Mike Plumb, TriPower MultiSports
Professional Running, Cycling and Multisport Coaching, F.I.S.T. Certified
http://www.tripower.org

cool, thanks.

starting in 2006 you will race in the age group that corresponds with your age based on December 31st, just like at Worlds and a lot of other countries



Just to clarify, you are talking about Dec 31st of 2006 and not dec 31 of 2005?

---

Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Any chance you can give us a complete list of all of the USAT Grand Prix events for all distances?

Also, any chance USAT can start working now on 2007 nationals so we don't repeat this on-going pattern of last minute planning? Seems silly we don't have our next nationals planned when ITU knows where worlds are for the next 3 years.

Thanks,
Chris

<< Just to clarify, you are talking about Dec 31st of 2006 and not dec 31 of 2005?

right

---

Mike Plumb, TriPower MultiSports
Professional Running, Cycling and Multisport Coaching, F.I.S.T. Certified
http://www.tripower.org

Sprint Distance:

Deschutes Dash
Breath of Life Ventura Tri
5430 Sprint
Quad Cities Tri
Stonebridge Ranch Tri
Ann Arbor Tri
Clemson Tri
Musselman Tri
Breezy Point Tri
Beaches Fine Arts Tri, Series 2
Mountain Lakes Tri

International Distance:

Federal Escape Tri
Carpinteria Tri
Las Vegas Tri at Storrie Lake
Turtleman Tri
Marble Falls Tri
Mideast Regional Tri Championship
Tugaloo Tri
Westchester Tri
Columbia Tri
St. Anthony's

Long Distance:

Kinetic Half
Auburn International
While Lake
Colleseum's ROck n Roll Man
Mooseman Tri
MedExpress Mountaineer Tri
Pacific Crest Half (pending)
Spirit of Racine
Musselman Tri
Great Buckeye Challenge
Degray Lake Half
Prairieman Half
Grand Columbian
Duke
Halfmax

Duathlon:

Rose Festival Du
Desert Classic Du
Rattlesnake Du
Apple Du
Lazy E Du Formula 1
Mideast Regional Du Championship
Shamrock Du
Brandywine Du
About Family Fitness Du 7

Long Distance Du:

PM Ohio
PM Alabama
PM NC
Metroplex Du-2-Du LC

---

Mike Plumb, TriPower MultiSports
Professional Running, Cycling and Multisport Coaching, F.I.S.T. Certified
http://www.tripower.org

Fantastic - thank you!

You should take over the PR duties for USAT.

Chris

if they don't kick me out first ;-)

---

Mike Plumb, TriPower MultiSports
Professional Running, Cycling and Multisport Coaching, F.I.S.T. Certified
http://www.tripower.org

You're right - you must fail all of their requirements if you can't keep secrets from the membership.

Chris

Wow! Thanks, Mike!

So it seems that in 2005, many (most?) of these International triathlons where after July 8. Are they all going to move the 2006 events to pre July 8th, or is this a case of the list of qualified athletes is already set?

not sure I quite understand the question Trixy, I'm a bit brain numb right now. It does look like a lot of the events are in July or later. Columbia and St. Anthonys being exceptions. I think that for the most part, they were trying to find a major race in each area and in most cases that happened to be when the race was being held.

---

Mike Plumb, TriPower MultiSports
Professional Running, Cycling and Multisport Coaching, F.I.S.T. Certified
http://www.tripower.org