monty wrote:
. . . a lot of scheduling challenges for many of the cross over pros for sure. How many PTO races one can skip is going to be crucial too. We saw last year what happened when some (like Blu) tried to back to back some big races.
And I think that a few races in we might see some ship jumping too. If the PTO is not going well for some and they get a good Ironman place here and there, I could see some soft pedaling in the 100k to focus more on the Ironman series. Gonna be fun to follow all of the different venues, do we know yet if Super League is going to be right in the mix too? If they can avoid the ITU olympic cycle here, they could get a big bump after the games are done too. 4 different series from super sprint to Ironman, gonna be a fun season to be a fan. Just hope we can watch them all without too much trouble, good time to be a pro for sure...
Scheduling and back-to-backs Blummenfelt was just over-ambitious (as well as suffering the widespread Singapore belly) - and that was majority opinion, I think. Paris and
either Lahti or Singapore: but assume dollar crazy. Listening to the excellent ST pod with West I was struck by a few anomalies. If West was all in on the 70.3 Worlds (as per pod) why oh why did he race Singapore? $$ But in the pod he said that one needed to really focus on the important races. Maybe that's a 'lesson identified'. The 100km Tour final and Taupo will be max 3 weeks apart (because of the late date for Kona - PTO will recognise their mutual interest with (about) half the PTO contract men who want to race Kona).
In 2024, the non-long distance athlete has 'no problem': 'just' race all the 100km Tour races and slip in a 70.3 qualifier to secure a slot to start Taupo.
For those trying to double up the first half of the season (ie March till July) is a serious challenge.100km races (contractually required to race every month(ish)) plus two IMs (Texas and another), and slip in a Taupo qualifier/IM series 70.3. Yes: glass slippers will surely be worn for several races.
The second half of the season will be equally challenging with Nice (or Kona) and several more 100km tour races before Taupo.
Super League will I assume be September/October so assume any SC post Olympics athlete who is 100km capable will have to choose between accept the odd 100km wildcard or Super League.
Maybe the PTO will contract Iden, van Riel and Luis to race all the post-Paris 100km races. Luis might get to race some earlier given he has minimal chance of Olympic selection (unless both he soars and Bergere is injured in the spring).
Still don't see any current top SC women who might be successful competing in the 100km Tour post-Paris, besides Knibb. A couple of the experienced Americans perhaps, who don't make the Paris cut? But is there the will?
Løvseth?
For those in Europe viewing is straightforward: Eurosport for Super League, triathlonlive.tv for all SC, PTO Live (free) for 100km races, Outside for 70.3s and Youtube for IMs (I assume all the 18 IM Series races will be IM's top priority for live broadcast).