Same for me too. My training has been a mixed bag. If I'm racing Nats, I wanted to be my A race. Hopefully, we will be in a better spot next year and we can all compete at our best.

Yeah, I was all but certain 3 months ago that this event was a goner, so no surprise.

Not surprised, either, that 2020 ITU Short Course WC Team USA members get first dibs on a Team USA slot for the 2021 WC at Bermuda. I half expect them to just bump all the age groups a year at the 2021 WC's (i.e. 41-45 instead of 40-44; 46-50 instead of 45-49; etc). It will be interesting to see what they do for additional roll-downs, though, as I'm sure there will be plenty who would have traveled to Calgary but can't or won't want to go to Bermuda.

Nice to see that they rolled the 2-year deal with Milwaukee back a year, so the race will be there again in 2022. I think it will be a good venue, and it relieves USAT from having to start the 2022 host venue solicitation process in a very uncertain time.

What's really interesting to me is that they've opened the qualification window for 2021 Nationals all the way back to April 1, 2018.

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

It is a bummer. Any idea if ITU World Champs for 2022 will still be in Bermuda? That was the goal for doing Nats this year.

No, Calgary skipped, Bermuda is on for 2021 (although I think it's still iffy), and Abu Dhabi in 2022.

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

I suspect that USAT will take a look at this year's rankings.

For the Sprint distance, I'd expect those who placed 9-18 in their age group last year in Cleveland are eligible for roll-down spots after this year's Draft-Legal National Championship (provded it stays on). Athletes who confirmed their spot for this year's Grand Final have the option to roll over to next year.

For Olympic distance, the spots roll down all the way to 30th place in each age group. I'd assume they will do that with the finishers of last year's Age Group Nationals.

After the roll-downs, I'd be very surprised if there aren't any spots left for either distance, especially because many people have aged-up this year or will be aging up next year. In the Team USA qualification tab (https://www.teamusa.org/...am-USA/Qualification) it says they would offer spots to athletes to finished on the podium in their age group in the previous Grand Final (Laussane in this case), but rarely any American athletes make the podium at the Grand Final.

The last resort would be to go through the rankings and roll down to 20th place, and if the spots are still left unclaimed (seems highly unlikely, but that's my opinion- there's still a possibility), I think USAT would just leave those spots unclaimed and send less than 18 athletes to Bermuda.

My strategy is to become an All-American this year in the most difficult age group to do so- the 16-17 age group, which requires a final score in the high 90s-low 100s and has very few ranked athletes, meaning a small number of All-Americans. My advice is to load up on races to rack up more points, try to nab a top-20 spot in your age group (or All-American status, which ever one is better), and hope that there are enough roll down spots.

This is all just a prediction- it just makes sense that USAT would follow through with this. Keep in mind that people might be going to less races, but to be ranked you need to finish just 2 races, so who knows what rankings are going to look like this year.

Unless you have new information, ITU has not announced where Worlds will be with the cancellation of 2020 in Edmonton. The World Triathlon Series still shows races as postponed https://wts.triathlon.org/ . There is precedent for moving each venue back one year as ITU already did with Multisport Worlds. With the rescheduling of Almere (Netherlands) from 2020 to 2021 the Multisport World Championships in Townsville (Australia) will subsequently move to 2022, while Ibiza (Spain) will now host the event in 2023.

I suspect we will find out the new schedule in the coming weeks. There is a lot that has to happen to adjust including scheduling around the new Olympic schedule and coordinating with multiple sets of governments so it could take awhile.

my guess is they will pretty much use last years nats results and roll them over. they will however give folks who may have claimed a roll down spot a spot before going back to the top of the list. if there is a dl nats in November they will use those for the 1st ten and then go back to last years results from Cleveland as if they were from this year.

if there is any collateral damage from age ups my guess is ITU will allow exceptions... I think it would be difficult to use 2020 ranking if there are any because many around the country may not get to race at all this year...

we shall see what happens

That's music to my ears. I qualified for 2019 in a June 2019 race but here in Minnesota most of our tri's are not USAT sanctioned, and it just so happens the ones that are I missed after the 2020 cutoff last year. I'm originally from Milwaukee so I really wanted to go but I'm not really sure when the next sanctioned event is actually going to happen. Just glad I've got my ticket punched for 2021 now :)

Well, running in Edmonton in 2021 and pushing Bermuda and Abu Dhabi each back a year would be the "new information." The call to cancel 2020 Edmonton has been out there for a couple months. Nothing about moving has come out.

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

That’d be interesting, I’d Love going to Bermuda and the family would be all in, I have no desire to do Abu Dhabi. Now that all my broken shit, isn’t broken, I might be able to make it again.

Wonder if this is a bad sign for Ironman WI

MadisonMan,

I wouldn't read toooo much into a Milwaukee decision to project an outcome in Madison. While writing is probably on the wall:

• Door County Tri-- cancelled
• Wisconsin Tri series-- cancelled
• USAT AG Nats-- cancelled
• Lake Country Tri (in very conservative Waukesha Co)-- cancelled
  
  

Wouldn't write it off just yet.

I don't have any special intel, but have had conversations with a couple of friends who do contract work with Ironman on the IMWI race. Don't think a final decision has been made yet. Sounds like the biggest concern with Dane County isn't about the race itself, but how they handle the expo, event staging, transition, and queues to start the race.

They are working with county on a plan for maintaining social distancing, but that requires a major rethink about how everything BUT the race itself happens in putting on the race with regards to covid.

Assuming that falls into place, still lots of potential hurdles, including medical staff and law enforcement/ emt support, volunteers on course that could derail this happening.

There IS however racing happening right now in Dane County and in Madison that is still on the calendar for the rest of the summer:

• Just this Thursday, we had the first of a new trail run series, in a Dane County Park, about 2 miles away from my house. Some weird restrictions and new protocol, but county approved it and 5 more events to go this summer and fall in the new series.
  
  
• Additionally, the city of madison approved the aquathon races up on madison's north side. Warner park beach for the swim, warner park for the 5k. These aquathon events are usually pretty distanced anyways-- open water lake start with plenty of distancing due to bell curve of swim ability, plus smaller number of (~100-150ish) participants. So racing happening.

Off of nothing but gut, i'd still say 90% likely to be cancelled, but still a chance this happens.

Hey Gary P my A event for the year was going to be Canadian nationals in Montreal next weekend. They are looking at Oct 2-4 weekend. Not sure how that can possibly work here in Canada that late in the year. I was hoping to qualify for ITU world's Bermuda. Not sure how things shake out for our Canadian team selection now.

I hope they bump everyone a year next year so I am competing in 56-60 be 55-59.

Not sure how much this plays in, but the one major hurdle I see to IM events and Nats is the fact that people will be traveling to them. Even if they can get all the distancing measures in place, permits, EMT support, etc.; hard to imagine the local govt being comfortable swinging their doors open to people from all over the country. Especially some of these states with spiking cases.

My point is don't be too quick to assume 2021 is Bermuda. We don't know. When Edmonton was called off, this was the wording in the press release "...based on the directive from Alberta Canada’s chief medical officer of health, the organisers of the 2020 World Triathlon Grand Final Edmonton are announcing that the Grand Final that was scheduled for August 17-23, in Edmonton, Alberta will unfortunately not take place in 2020." Not take place in 2020 is different than cancelled. And as I pointed out there is recent precedent from last month when Multisport Worlds were each pushed back a year.

That same press release goes on to say "World Triathlon, along with the Edmonton Organising Committee, the City of Edmonton and all stakeholders and the community partners will continue to work closely together to find new options for the event to take place in the future, when it is safe to do so."

Its still anyone's guess whether it will be Edmonton or Bermuda.

The ITU is still sorting out their calendar for next year, which is why there is no announcement yet as to what is going on.

My guess on this one is that the ITU will split sprint and standard worlds next year, and run Sprint Worlds in Edmonton sometime earlier in the summer, and then Run standard at Bermuda as planned. No official information on this, but given that this is the direction they are going post 2021 anyways (Standard distance/super sprint at the grand final and then Sprint and MTR at a separate championship), I wouldn't be surprised that they would go down this path early. What that means in terms of qualifications and such, will vary from country to country, and depend on what racing can happen this year in terms of qualifications. I could be wrong, but that is my best guess at this point. I don't think they will be able to pull off the lift and shift that they did with Multisport Worlds of just moving everything back a year...

I wasn't aware of the format change coming in 2022 splitting the DL Sprint and Standard distance age group races, that could certainly have an impact.

Edmonton and Bermuda might not be too happy with the reduction in participant tourism money. Wonder what overlap there is with DL Sprint competitors also racing in Standard distance.

Either one is good by me.

Montreal has already been awarded Sprint/MTR worlds for 2022, with the Grand Final being in Abu Dhabi. An earlier split will suck for tourism dollars for the hosts impacted, but it might be the middle ground, if they can't do the lift and shift that has been done with the multisport worlds (where they were able to negotiate with 3 LOCs and sets of governments to move their events back by a year). We'll see how this cookie crumbles over the coming months as the 2021 schedule gets ironed out...

I am excited to share that just received word that I have qualified for the 2021 USA Triathlon Age Group Nationals. My 2020 race performances must really have impressed someone. I am both humbled and honored to be recognized for this distinction and privilege.

On the serious side, I would like to go to this race someday, but this is probably not the year for me. I have heard that the quality of the event is fantastic from friends who have gone. This should be an interesting year for USAT, because so few people had the opportunity to race at all for a qualification in 2020, so performances should be all over the place.

Did you have to dig up last years thread to sing your praises?? (-;

I was kind of bummed flipping through it until I realized it is not about this years race, not yet anyway...

Yes, I did not think it was worthy of a brand new thread. My post really is about the 2021 USAT Nationals race: August 7, 2021. That part probably is thread-worthy, because it is another sign of our hobby resuming.

Although I am not interested in Nationals this year, it did my heart warm to see the invitation email.

USAT's wording makes it seem like they're pretty confident this race is going to happen. I'd love to race. I did it back in '15 and had a blast. Got my invitation, but with a ton of racing already on the schedule, plus a wedding + honeymoon in October/Nov., I don't know if racing AG Nats to be a prudent decision.

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

I got the same email. No idea how I would have qualified, do you know what criteria they would have based it on?

Obviously it’s something from the 2019, but I don’t see how I would qualify for sprint Nats when I only did 70.3 distance races...?

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the world's still turning? >>>>>>> the world's still turning

I was curious and looked at their qualification updates. They did 2 things... first, anyone who qualified for 2020 was automatically qualified for 2021. And second, they extended the 2021 qualification period back to mid 2019. (I actually did one race in 2020 that qualified me. Although that race handed my butt to me, I just squeaked under the top 15% AG line.)

Ah, I was wondering why I got those emails. I would love to go some year as well.

You can qualify for USAT Nationals at any USAT sanctioned race regardless of distance.

https://www.teamusa.org/...nships/Qualification

Thanks!

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the world's still turning? >>>>>>> the world's still turning

I think they made an adjustment to cast a wider net there as well:

Qualification Path #1: General USAT Sanctioned Age Group Triathlons
The first way to qualify is through a normal USAT Sanctioned age group triathlon of any distance. These events include all non-championship events.

• Olympic-Distance: To qualify, athletes must either place in the top three (3) or in the top 25% of finishers in their age group.
• Sprint: To qualify, athletes must either place in the top five (5) or in the top 35% of finishers in their age group, whichever is greater.

USA TRIATHLON EVENT CANCELLATION POLICY

I agree and understand that there are NO REFUNDS, ROLLOVERS, DEFERALS or BIB TRANSFERS. Entry fees are non-refundable and non-transferable under any and all circumstances, including, but not limited to cancellation of the event or of your participation. No exceptions!


money grab and run? I used to be part of an NGB and less trusting of their motivation for the athletes since then.


$300 for olympic

Best guess: there will be racing in August unless we get new deadlier or more infections strains, or a new strain against which the existing vaccines are ineffective. Then we are back to square one. A lot can happen in 5 months.

I'm surprised they pumped up the price from 190 to 250. Having a 2 in front makes it seem a hell of a lot more expensive for an olympic.

That being said, if you're travelling to nationals, hotels, etc. $50 shouldn't make or break it for you.

I've never given half a thought to AG Nats before, but now that I got the email it's piqued my interest. If I can get the boss to give me the ok, I might sign up. I'm sure it's a great event!

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the world's still turning? >>>>>>> the world's still turning

They looked at how poorly IM has been treating their base and what their prices were...

$250 seems cheap all of a sudden (almost pink)

Just had a quick look at the homepage, and did not see when the race is actually happening? And if later in the summer, can you still qualify beforehand?

For me it is more about where they hold the race than the actual race, would like a nice area to perhaps bring the fam. I haven't been to Milwaukee in a very long time, but recall fond memories of the place, so perhaps worth a trip. Any locals or frequent visitors have some info one way or the other?

Aug 7-8. Not 100% sure on the qualification window but I think anything during this season would count toward 2022 qualification.

People rave about the Milwaukee location. I did both in Cleveland and had an absolute blast yet everyone said Milwaukee is way better (venue/race setup, not city necessarily), and apparently why USAT has seemingly settled on it as a permanent spot.

add another $50 for fees and usat license. it also depends where you travel from and how you do it. its much cheaper for someone within driving distance. . Now being I need a flight for this , I would rent a car and sleep in it ($30 a day). But is it worth losing that much when I can race cheaper in florida where event is more likely to happen? (if I am going to fly)

I read my email this morning and was surprised I made it. It’s been so long since I’ve raced that I had forgotten my placement in any of the races from 2019.

It’d be cool to say I competed in Nationals, but Milwaukee is a long way from The Peach State. It’d make 2021 a heck of a race year for me though:
August: Age Group Nationals
September: Augusta 70.3
November: IMFL

I did Milwaukee twice and Cleveland. Nationals are fantastic - love the energy and passion! Milwaukee is a good venue and definitely worth considering.

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

I am a short course Nats geek. Did Milwaukee twice and Cleveland twice and am from Cleveland. Reserved my hotel for Milwaukee 2021 and am thrilled that it's walking distance to race.

Not sure what race or races l'll do yet at Nats. I can't f$#%ing wait to race this year. 2020 sucked.

USAT nationals IMO is the best non Ironman age group race in the country. But I haven't done them all so what do I know...

Milwaukee itself is nice place to visit for a few days. Has good food and good beer. Areas to wander and some nice museums. Of course it depends on what your family is looking for.

The location of the race is fantastic. Walking distance to a bunch of hotels and generally a nice place for a family that is dragged to a race to hang out. The location of the race is a popular place for locals and tourists to visit without the race, so I don't think that is a crazy statement. Or other areas of the city are within walking distance.

I'm originally from Milwaukee so I'm pretty excited that the race is on (for now.) Helps that it's only a 5hr drive and I get to stay with my folks so I really get to do nationals on the cheap. Really curious about what the bike course is going to look like, but aside from a a short climb up the bluffs I'd imagine it will be a pancake flat course as well, especially the run if it's done in Veterans Park. Does anybody have a course map from the last time they held it there?

i got the email as well. zero idea how i qualified, especially since my swim is pretty much trying to not drown and look like a wounded animal struggling to make it to the shore.

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

I was surprised as heck to get the email, and like everyone else had no idea how I got there until I saw the top 5/35% deal for the sprint race.

Won't be doing it this year but did Oly Nats in Milwaukee in 2014. Flew out from CA, I don't qualify for much so I figured might as well do it. It was a fantastic race, fantastic venue, and still my Oly PR

Any idea if course maps are available? Curious about elevation gain on bike and run and how many turns on the bike.

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Blog: https://davidkoppeltriathlon.blogspot.com/
Coaching: https://dkendurance.com/

The run course is dead flat for both races (OD and sprint). The swim is in a protected cove.
The bike course has flat stretches and rolling hills (one of them is a bridge), so not a flat course but not what I would consider hilly. The initial out leg goes up a short hill that hits maybe 5% before turning around and heading south towards the bridge "hill". Once over the bridge you either turn around and go back to transition (sprint) or head through some more rollers before heading back (OD).
I did Nats all three years before when it was in Milwaukee. Great location for a race and very spectator friendly, my wife was very pleased with the ability to see me for a lot of the race. Head and shoulders above Omaha and Cleveland IMHO. Plus Milwaukee was a lot of fun.

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Live long and surf!

Qualified for Oly and Sprint, decided to sign up for the Sprint and make the race the kickoff to a vacation week in Wisc.

Some how qualified for both. Didn’t race any races last year and only did aquabike the year before

Not sure how I qualified for them