The 2015 ITU schedule has been announced. This is how it looks:
28-29 March Auckland, New Zealand
11-12. April Gold Coast, Australia.
25-26 April Cape Town, South Africa.
16-17 May Yokohama, Japan.
Dates TBC London, Great Britain
18-19. July Hamburg, Germany.
22-23 August Stockholm, Sweden.
5-6 September Edmonton,
Canada 15-20 September Chicago, USA
A few observations and thoughts:
1) There is no Rio test event which I find puzzling. The ITU say that a tenth city will be possibly announced later. Rio is supposedly going to hold a test event in September but hard to see that it will be ITU series (risking that the field won't be particularly rich)
2) In terms of taking ITU racing across the world, it is impressive. But the organisers have taken no heed at all of the general complaints from the athletes (Gomez, Jorgensen, Brownlee, Murray) about the length of season or the amount of traveling. It is actually tougher this time.
3) The courses are generally boring and flat (London, Yokohama, Chicago, Cape Town), meaning they strongly favour fast runners. In 2013, it seemed the ITU was moving towards a more interesting range of courses (Madrid with its hill, the Kitzbuhel mountain, Stockholm cobbles). Only Stockholm features this year. So no encouragement for the better cyclists.
4) With the bias on running, this is Jorgensen's world title to take.
5) With such a long season and the requirement of taking part in 6 races, it stops the top athletes experimenting with other (possibly non-drafting) formats. Which I don't think is healthy.
Interestingly, Alistair Brownlee said last month that unless the world series changes into something more sensible, he is not going to chase it again. So I think Mola and Gomez (unless say Coninx steps up which is quite possible) will be the favourites for the title.
28-29 March Auckland, New Zealand
11-12. April Gold Coast, Australia.
25-26 April Cape Town, South Africa.
16-17 May Yokohama, Japan.
Dates TBC London, Great Britain
18-19. July Hamburg, Germany.
22-23 August Stockholm, Sweden.
5-6 September Edmonton,
Canada 15-20 September Chicago, USA
A few observations and thoughts:
1) There is no Rio test event which I find puzzling. The ITU say that a tenth city will be possibly announced later. Rio is supposedly going to hold a test event in September but hard to see that it will be ITU series (risking that the field won't be particularly rich)
2) In terms of taking ITU racing across the world, it is impressive. But the organisers have taken no heed at all of the general complaints from the athletes (Gomez, Jorgensen, Brownlee, Murray) about the length of season or the amount of traveling. It is actually tougher this time.
3) The courses are generally boring and flat (London, Yokohama, Chicago, Cape Town), meaning they strongly favour fast runners. In 2013, it seemed the ITU was moving towards a more interesting range of courses (Madrid with its hill, the Kitzbuhel mountain, Stockholm cobbles). Only Stockholm features this year. So no encouragement for the better cyclists.
4) With the bias on running, this is Jorgensen's world title to take.
5) With such a long season and the requirement of taking part in 6 races, it stops the top athletes experimenting with other (possibly non-drafting) formats. Which I don't think is healthy.
Interestingly, Alistair Brownlee said last month that unless the world series changes into something more sensible, he is not going to chase it again. So I think Mola and Gomez (unless say Coninx steps up which is quite possible) will be the favourites for the title.
Last edited by:
FeketeBlob: Sep 5, 14 5:01