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