That is correct. A few days ago I saw the email WTC sent out to pro's telling them that there was no pro race there. I can't remember if it was on a thread here or somewhere else though.

AG only huh, wonder why?

Mmm... well, spending money doesn't necessarily mean you have lots left. Buying up other races could mean they now have less in the bank. Looks bad, though.

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Zen and the Art of Triathlon. Strava Workout Log
Interviews with Chris McCormack, Helle Frederikson, Angela Naeth, and many more.
http://www.zentriathlon.com

They should race age group.

I don't think it looks bad. The bought a race. It's a big race w/ a lot of logistics. It's 5 months away. They are way behind on the planning and most pros already have their races set. Nobody going to Kona will go. It will also take away from pros racing at Tahoe, Wisconsin and probably a couple others. The points are more valuable than the field should have. I suspect they will have a pro field next year.

Everyone seems to be forgetting the fact that WTC was this race's hail mary and they have a lot of work to do to make it the quality race that WTC does. Purposely letting a few things go is a good idea for them.

Just think..a non-kona ager is gonna win an ironman!

My guess is that you will find more and more IM races without a pro class. If WTC wants to see deep pro fields they have to limit the number of races.

You can't race in the age group races in the same year that you have a pro card. You have to race pro.

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"Just don’t abandon everything you’ve ever learned because of something someone said on the internet." - Eric McGinnis

Non-kona? They still have Kona slots, just no pro field.

Yeah, I didn't mean IS bad, just said LOOKS bad. Scares the hell out of the pros and they are your ambassadors. I would have cut corners somewhere else before I cut the pros out. If pros are considered fat to cut to make a race happen, I'd not be happy to be a pro right now. They've given up a lot to race pro and to know that the industry doesn't consider them important would hurt. That's how it appears, and that actually matters more than facts. (I know, sounds stupid, but it's true.)

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Zen and the Art of Triathlon. Strava Workout Log
Interviews with Chris McCormack, Helle Frederikson, Angela Naeth, and many more.
http://www.zentriathlon.com

It's not how it appears, it's actually reality. The pros are not important... at all. They could be dropped from every IM race and IM registrations wouldn't skip a beat. Very few people give a shit.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

That'd be great... In my opinion. When I wrote about "reworking the Ironman numbers" that's part of my solution, or at least suggestion on how to make races more compelling in terms of competition. I doubt IMMD participants will care that they're racing a race without any pros. But I could be wrong. Wouldn't be the first time.

I hope this becomes a trend.

IMO pros really don't do anything for the sport and they're basically rent-seeking by pulling money (prize purses) from either AG'ers or other sections of the race that could use it. I'm relatively new to tri, but I've been following it for a while as I spent more than a year training before doing my first race, then I've been following it more closely since I've been racing. I often read the boards, but there is a very short list of pros I even know the names of.

Off the top of my head, as someone who generally follows tri: Macca, Chris Lieto, Jordan Rapp (because he posts here and posts detailed things about his nutrition and aero stuff), Something Kienle, Christie Wellington, Lance Armstrong if you count him, and the guy who was big/winning in the 80's because I was often in his swim masters classes in Boulder whose name escapes me now (edit: Dave Scott!). And compared to the average AG'er, I have a feeling I know more pro names than the vast, vast majority of them. I watched Lance race at the IMTX 70.3 a couple years ago and everyone was pretty amped up. He came in 8th or something. Couldn't even for a second begin to tell you what other pro raced that day.

I often look at pro results at races I am interested in and it's very rare that I even recognize any of their names (though I did notice J Rapp won IMTX last year when I was looking through results). Not sure what value they really add really. I mean, I'm happy some of them can make a living doing it, but it's at the expense of my race dollars for which I don't seem to receive any benefit.

Serious question: Can anyone tell me what value a non-World Champion\non-Olympian pro adds to IM triathlon?

We've beat to death the value/non-value of pros a million times, so no need to reopen that can of worms....but why would you hope for races without pro fields? I can understand an ambivalence, but you HOPE it becomes a trend of IM events without a pro field?

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Brian Shea
http://www.PersonalBestNutrition.com
Open-Water/Masters Swimming at the Jersey Shore:
Monmouth County NJ Ocean Swim/Masters Workouts

Two years ago, I stunk up the IMLP course. That year, Andy Potts won the race while Pete Jacobs took the second seat. I got a brief exchange of words with Pete (in case you didn't know, Pete went on to win Kona that year- which I'm pretty sure had something to do with me calling him "dawg" on the IMLP run course). I also got to run with Romain Guillaume for about a quarter of a mile and got my picture taken with him while the ski jumps were in the background. I thought it was awesome! I also got to root for a future IM Champ, and local to me, Jennie Hanson who finished in second that year (she went on to win IMLP in 2013).

Having said that, past those 4 pros I mentioned above, I had not even heard of any of the other pros on the list. Even now, I went back and looked them up, I got nothing. Therefore, I honestly think it's a good move to herd the pros into some races and remove them from others. It ups the competition amongst their ranks and makes for a higher probability that the average schlub like me could actually run the course with someone whose name is recognizable in sport.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

True. I'm not wishing or hoping the pros disappear but they are not what keeps triathlon going and they don't pay the entry fees that make races happen. They are merely an interesting footnote.

My hope is pros figure out how to make themselves valuable otherwise they need to stop siphoning off the AG teet. Like it or not, we subsidize their existence.

As Judge Smails once said...

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Yes we know, a pro must have pissed in your cornflakes repeatedly as you make a concerted effort to sh#t on them whenever possible...despite the fact that they apparently have no impact on your races. We know....we all know.

Do you attempt to be this adversarial in the real world or just when you hide behind an anonymous internet persona?

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Brian Shea
http://www.PersonalBestNutrition.com
Open-Water/Masters Swimming at the Jersey Shore:
Monmouth County NJ Ocean Swim/Masters Workouts

You do understand I meant that no kona qualifier this year is going to do IMMD race this year, right? So whoever wins this year will not be a pro, and will not likely be someone who has qualified this year for Kona.

You might consider changing your signature line for a few days. This is not the best time to be making light of climbing Everst.

Most endurance sports have a world cup series with tier 2 and 3 feeder series. I think something similar could be good for long distance triathlon. Then the best pros can meet and the one of us that follow them will have good races. ITU has a model, so does xc-skiing, biathlon and middle/long distance track. It is good for the sport if the best athletes are competing against each other.

Do I think it will happen in LD triathlon. Not at all. LD triathlon is organized like cage fighting. Private companies with their own world title.(or like pro boxing if you like)

The few pros I have met have been very nice people. The few pros that frequent and post regularly on ST seem to be very nice people. I have nothing personal against any of them.

What I take offense to is the fact that my money goes to subsidize their livelihood... and for what reason? What the hell do I get out of it?

I'm not being adversarial. I'm being pragmatic. If you weren't so blinded by your vested interest in professional triathletes helping to pay your bills you'd understand why myself and others feel this way. Well, maybe that was adversarial. Or maybe it was pragmatic. Depends what side of the fence you're on.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Here's why it's never going away. According to this response by Andrew Messick (CEOIronman on ST) there's currently 900 pros in their system. Using the 80-20 rule, let's assume that 80% of them pay the now $800 annual fee to race any race they want (720 of them). I know in the grand scheme of things, $576,000 isn't a huge amount of money, but at least the pros are not costing Ironman any money. These races go on regardless of whether they show up, and most of them are sold out regardless of who shows up.

If anything, the money above is probably used by Ironman to pay some pro athletes to show up to races and act as ambassadors (a la Crowie and Rapp), but those are few and far between. If you and Julie Diebens, towards the end, Sebastian mentions something about a not having signed a contract yet, but that he'll most likely be at a race in Frankfurt this summer (IM Frankfurt). So at least a handful of athletes do actually benefit.

It would not be a "bad trend". The proliferation of IMs has meant that the competitive field have become very diluted. So having a few IM without a pro field would only strengthen it? Most IM these days have a only a token top names in them, hardly exciting...