Ever since the beginning of triathlon, that has been my dream race to do. And now that its too late, I would love to watch something like this. I love the new format on the 3 day races, where they race several times a day, different formats, sometimes a stand alone event too. So lengthening out the events, including some stand alone races, and rest days would be great fun, especially if there were big money on the line and all the big names showed up..

No.

They refer the TdeF as a "circus". Some places/networks might want a circus in August. Maybe a team/relay component? And if a teammate crashes out your disadvantaged (a little)?

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Indoor Triathlete - I thought I was right, until I realized I was wrong.

Just go watch how Super League has imo almost perfected how to have a pro race over a 3 day weekend. That's all you need. If you wanted to take 2-3 day weekend of races over a month and go from Orlando to Charlotte to DC to NY over 4 weekends, by all means that would be sick. But a 3 week "continous" style multisport race format (included all kinds of events- TT's/enduro sprint/ itu/aquathlon/5k, etc etc) to me would be boring as hell after about the 4th day.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

That would be awesome.

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http://www.sfuelsgolonger.com

I've always day-dreamed about two kinds of races.

One: Pool swim inside a velodrome with a track around the pool.
They have done it a few times now. Euro Indoor worlds, some race in the 90's, and Challenge Daytona Beach.

Two: Endurance Decathlon. (I could only think of 8 events)
400 IM
1500-4k OWS. No run out of the water. Just swimming to the finish, like the Olympic OWS
70-100 mile RR. Ideally on a "Classics" style course.
10-40k TT. Flatter.
3k Steeple
10-13 mile Road race.
Sprint Distance D.L.
1/2 IM, non-draft.

Scored by placing.

Feel free to work shop this.

You could always come and join us next year in the TransAmTri.
.
31mile swim/2,600mile bike/310mile run...28day time limit. :-)

https://transamtri.com/

400 IM
1500-4k OWS. No run out of the water. Just swimming to the finish, like the Olympic OWS
70-100 mile RR. Ideally on a "Classics" style course.
10-40k TT. Flatter.
3k Steeple
10-13 mile Road race.
Sprint Distance D.L.
1/2 IM, non-draft. //

Just to tweek; No need for a 10 to 13 mile road race, what is that anyway? Unless you meant running, then it should be a 10k, like the races we did every weekend coming up..


TT bike ride should be 40k, keep it classic.


OWS should be 5k, and add another event that goes in and out through surf, perhaps a mile or so..


I would like to see the mile run as the 10th event too, like the decathlon.

True. That's one of things that they don't care for in a Grand Tour - marches can get boring. If there were lead changes that left the outcome in doubt, that would help.

What could create some changes? A swimming time trial where no one else is sighting for you and you're not drafting? Same for the bike? Maybe for the run too? One's ability to recover,stay hydrated and fueled.

While arduous, it would be help if the race could also serve as useful training so as not to put the pro athlete out of races for the rest of the year (unless the purse was worthwhile). Sometimes racing is the best training.

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Indoor Triathlete - I thought I was right, until I realized I was wrong.

Really like the idea of scored by placing, especially for this situation. Steeple/hurdles??? lol might result in some gender changes mid race.

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Indoor Triathlete - I thought I was right, until I realized I was wrong.

Looks like a great event. Does everybody but me know about it? Will there / has there been an ST article?

My brother-in-law does this http://www.hokaheychallenge.com/...s/2020_challenge.htm Very popular with bragging rights.

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Indoor Triathlete - I thought I was right, until I realized I was wrong.

It used to exist. The IRON TOUR in France. In the 90's and lasted up to around mid 2000's or thereabout. Javier Gomez dominated the last few years of its existence. Earlier, Simon Lessing was a regular winner.

Didn't last 3 weeks, but included several triathlons, a mix of olympic, sprint, Time Trial Triathlon, over about 7 days. Drew all the best short course triathletes at the beginning, was awesome.

Here is a recap of the 1996 IRON TOUR:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFnNEF_m8aQ

I did mean running. 10k running race seems good to me.
Maybe a surf lifesaving "ironman event" with only the swim and run portions?
Open water of 5k would be more tactical, which I would enjoy watching.
I like the idea of a flat out mile run to finish it off. Especially with placing mattering more than time.

.

Nah,Slowtwitchers aren't into the Ultra's really.There is a bit of coverage of Ultraman Hawaii and maybe Ultraman Florida but that is about it.Apart from giving people like Ashley Horner and IronCowboy time,only a few of us here give a damn about Multi-Iron and Bikepacking races and Trans Continental Tris.

I think it could work. But to work it would need to have teams and allow drafting on the bike. The 'stages' would include different distances and not holding to the 'standard' leg distance.

Eg - stage 1 might be an individual TT (prologue) sprint distance tri. Stage 2 might have a 4km swim, 20k bike and 5k run. Stage 3 might be a 1.5k swim, 180k bike with a big climb in the middle and 10k run. Stage 4 might be a 400m swim, 20k bike, followed by a marathon. Stage 5 might be an ITT over a standard Olympic distance. Stage 6 might be a 'reverse' order leg with a 10k run, then 40k bike and finish with a 1.5k swim....and so on

The way the 'stages' and different leg distances are laid out over different courses would significantly impact results, and would make the race very dynamic. E.g. Lange would smash stage 4 above, but Wurf would smash stage 3. Who does the team work for to make sure the lowest cumulative time for one of the team members at the end of all stages? I think this type of week long, or two week long format would be very unpredictable and quite exciting

This looks awesome! I'd heard about the TranAm bike race, but didn't realize there was a tri version.

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Strava

.
Yeah it should be pretty epic.The swim and run will require crews but the bike will be done Bikepacker style,alone and unsupported.

Thanks for the fantastic video. How retro: a few wetsuits, speedos and clip-on bars. Athletes looked super fit and healthy too.

So they gave it a try; yet, it didn't catch on. Oh well, your answer with the video made the post worthwhile.

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Indoor Triathlete - I thought I was right, until I realized I was wrong.

Good ideas and use of ITT to create action on other stages where competitors will have to attack to make up time.

With the team approach, does one want someone who's primarily a swimmer or primarily a cyclist who are there for their GC man? We could have classifications/competition for best swimmer/cyclist/runner within the race and not just overall winner. A prize for lowest overall team time?

Maybe that team format could be carried over to even one day tris. When I see triathlons broadcast, the outcomes seem too inevitable (barring a blowup) for too much of the broadcast. When there's a team component, what's happening behind the winner in the race gains in importance and interest. That would be true for ITU or IM. Maybe make for some "relationship" coverage rather than individual coverage. Perhaps this could be like XC running with a team result that's as important as individual winner (by paying the team as much as the overall winner).

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Indoor Triathlete - I thought I was right, until I realized I was wrong.

Here you have one of France Iron Tour stages that was broadcast live on national television.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTjJzceKd3I

There is the triple Deca in 2013 on Lake Garda. 22 men and 2 women started, 8 managed to finish the 'race'.

https://triathlonmagazine.ca/...3-goes-in-lombardia/

Great article comparing perfromances to regular Deca here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...articles/PMC4161722/

So yes Pro Triathlon could have a 3 week long race.

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He who understands the WHY, will understand the HOW.

And I was in front of my TV! What a blast! It was the first time I saw triathlon on TV, and I think it was the first time that a triathlon race was broadcasted live on french TV. I was 20, already interested in tri but not involved, and this broadcast triggered my first signup!
Thank you Simon for your charisma, you made me discover my biggest passion for the sport.

And by the way, I can't remember if Chris McCormack took part in any of these races. But if it has been the case, he might have been inspired by the jersey system at play in France Iron Tour before implementing it for the Super League. Oh my, that silver jersey you had! ;-)

First, what forum software does ST have where it doesn't have multi-quote as an option? Or am I totally blind?



I'm much more into the bike stuff, but this would grab my attention.

I think a big logistical nightmare for Tri would be that they don't have organized "team" buses and massive staff following the race. These WT teams have the team bus, the SAG cars, the mobile workshop, sometimes a food truck with a chef, staff and cars, and and and and and and.

Don't let that mean I wouldn't want to see it, but triathlon doesn't have that org design right now.


I tend to agree with this. I saw people post on ST about Super League and I watched some highlights on Youtube and thought it looked really cool.

I think part of what another poster in here commented is true, that despite very individual awards in WT racing.........it's still a team sport. You'd have to figure out how to introduce a LIVE teamwork aspect to the tri version like making all the events team dependent. So, the swim and run might be relay and the bike would be TTT style with same rule as WT racing of being able to drop one rider (like poor Sagan last year pedaling all alone in the yellow jersey in the TTT, lol).

I'd have days where it is a single sport and days where it is all 3 sports. I'd have sprint distance days and maybe have one "queen stage" or whatever it's called that is a 1/2 IM or full distance.

You could also really give cycling a jab by making teams have either at least one woman racer on them OR a 50/50 split.

Not 3 week but I enjoyed watching the island house triathlon that went on for a few years.

If they go through all the trouble to set up a course like Kona, and hold the race, and its the dream destination for so many triathletes... why not hold the identical race every day for a week. 3,000 athletes a day. With the grand finale the pros race, on the final day.

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Athlinks / Strava

The coverage/filming seems even better then than now. Congratulations on your win.

How did you and the other triathletes feel after all of those stages when the race was over? Did it help or hurt your season that year?

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Indoor Triathlete - I thought I was right, until I realized I was wrong.

This race was seven races in 8 days. The format changed from year to year however most of the time there was a prologue, team time trial (5 in a team) third person's time across the line counted and the other two had to finish within a percentage of the team time. Mountain stage up Alpe d'Huez etc. This was all out racing every day over the Sprint and Olympic distance. The races were in the evening 5pm. We would be done by 7pm and then drive hours to the next venue. We slept all day and did it all over again!

If you ask anyone that participated in the France Iron Tour it was one of the most epic events in our sport.
The prize money was really good broken down as such.

Individual overall (Jersey)
Team overall (Jersey)
Fastest swimmer accumulative. (Jersey)
Fastest cyclist accumulative. (Jersey)
Fastest runner accumulative. (Jersey)
Sprint primes on the bike ( (Jersey)

ASO, who own the Tour de France were interested in taking over the event but negotiations fell through.


Here is a pic of our team time trial during the first edition of the event. You may notice a few names:

https://images.app.goo.gl/qFMWpUgdoXAVN4t5A

Molina, Pigg, Riccitello, Hobson, Lessing


To answer your question, yes we were pretty trashed after eight days of head to head racing however the prize pool was worth it. It definitely left your legs feeling a little flat for a while afterwords!

wow. so let me do some calculating:

swim - probably 2 days
bike - i'd guess 16-18 days on the account of saddle sores? RAAM is obviously faster but they don't have to run ....
Plus some time to travel from SD to Death Valley (could be a 12 hour drive depending on the time of the day)
That leaves 6-7 days to cover the run.

That's a tight schedule.

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Next races on the schedule: none at the moment

Thank you for your replies with details, pictures and your take on it - as one who has actually accomplished it.

This latest picture of a TTT run is amazing. While we are used to XC races as team races, it's unusual to see pros so tightly together at the finish line. I can only imagine how each one of you were turning themselves inside out so as NOT to drop off before the finish.

So an extended pro triathlon race is not out the question. We just need the money!

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Indoor Triathlete - I thought I was right, until I realized I was wrong.

.
The time is tough for the back of the pack folks for sure but the top folks should get it done without too much trouble.The bike isn't following the Southern Tier all the way to the coast.It will turn north 500miles short of the coast and head to Death Valley to start the run.

Easy estimates would be..I expect the winner to be faster.
1.5day swim
14 day ride
7 days run

And, there's no money in it

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

It was epic following you guys. I think if everyone's legs get trashed, over the week, then it's "all even". Having said that, I THINK that a triathlon stage race should be swim and bike heavy with short runs or uphill runs, saving the longer run days to the end so athletes's are not carrying fatigue. More run-swim-bike days would be awesome too so the runs are on fresh legs, but people are holding back on the run a bit (less trashing) because of the tactics for the upcoming swim and draft legal bike. If you have the bike at the end and othe stages coming up, it may not be worthwhile to kill the run and then get caught on the swim+bike where everyone is drafting.

Or some days that are swim + Hill climb bike + hill climb run (I think you did that triathlon from Thonon Les Bains to Avouriaz back in the day when you swam in Lake Geneva and just kept going uphill on the bike and run for something crazy like 3000m of climbing.

Yes, that was fun to watch. I think for triathlon, a 3 day event is the way to go.

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"The first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue."
- Napoleon Bonaparte

Awesome. I remember that live broadcast. Here's what I've got in my archive.

https://www.thestreakpodcast.com/...nce-iron-tour-primer


Ross.

Here you go Simon..
1996.

.
1997

I second this. Was an awesome way to watch a pro field race a few different distances over a few days

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💀 Fxck Cancer Endurance Team 💀
⚡️⚡️ PLUSH Global ⚡️⚡️

Great videos. I remember watching the 1997 one live. I'm in the 1996 one briefly. 33:52. White hat, blue sleeves.

1994 used to be on YouTube but it disappeared a few years ago. It had the iconic international line-up of Mike Pigg, Jimmy Riccitello, Wes Hobson, Andy Carlson, Scott Molina and Simon Lessing racing for France Info.

There was also the two stage test event in 1993 that I've linked to below.

Happy to make a PDF if anybody wants to read the full articles.

https://www.thestreakpodcast.com/...iron-tour-test-event

https://www.thestreakpodcast.com/...nce-iron-tour-primer

Cheers.

Ross