With fewer pro races around right now, I feel like the pro racing scene has just gotten much better. Right now we have ITU/Super League on the shorter draft-legal end and the now more-limited Challenge/Ironman half and full racing opportunities, almost all of the pro racing now has truly great fields and makes it amazing to watch. When you add in a whole other category of racing, and more and more pro fields in more Challenge and IM races you end up with many pro fields that are just not that interesting. If someone is truly world-class at olympic non-draft racing, they should be able to be world class at either ITU or 70.3 racing too - depending mostly on their swim talent as to which they should pick.

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
Instagram • Facebook

I hear you. I think some of the amazing racing we are seeing right now is due to the pandemic and limited race options overall. I just wish there was an American short course scene that had some money behind it. I don't think it would dilute the quality of racing that we are seeing in longer distance events right now.

What RowToTri said. Don't need another separate 'league' right now. Need the best to compete against the best more often in short course (World Triathlon and SuperLeague) and long course (Full, Half).

i don't know about a 'league,' but i do miss the presence of a whole bunch of 'classics.' time was a guy could cobble together a decent career with races like alcatraz, st croix, phuket, mrs t's, noosa, and then later things like lifetime fitness. you could even throw in things like nice, zofingen, etc.

i love that those races are weird distances and formats, and they complement the more standardized 'majors' on the calendar. sort of like paris-roubaix vs the tour de france.

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

What seems to have happened is that the big Oly races of the 90s have given way to the 70.3s as big AG events.

If you have a big race with marquee sponsors, there will be opportunities for the pros; but right now the oly races have become small, local affairs. IM really has sucked up all the oxygen.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

piggybacking on this. i think there are maybe two problems: one is a proliferation of (especially) IM races means some fields are diluted. the other is that a proliferation of pros and a raising of the bar (especially on the bike) means that at some races the fields are packed. st george probably had too many male pros. with a 10m draft zone, and everyone coming out of the water fairly close together, you essentially end up a with a line of riders a mile long. this is where olympic distance tri had gotten by 2000 and was part of the reason that the olympics went draft-legal - it just gets impossible to separate out all the pros to legal distance when they're exiting the water together and riding the same speed.

so . . . maybe the future of non-draft OD is actually draft-legal 70.3?

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____________________________________
https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

St. Anthony's, in Florida, had a non-draft Pro race with good money. I haven't heard it changed, but it might have. Have you looked at that one?

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http://www.sfuelsgolonger.com

I think a pro draft-legal 70.3 is the way to go.

Usat should hold a national Olympic non draft race series. Where does all that membership money go? To draft legal/Olympic racing?
How many of their members don't really care about draft legal racing?

Well, given USAT is a subset of the US OLYMPIC Committee, it would stand to reason they were focused on Olympic racing and development. What really strikes me though is the dichotomy between USAT's membership and it's mission, but that's a topic for another thread another day.

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I wrote this, you should read it:
https://www.slowtwitch.com/...n_Swimming_6700.html

I would love to race draft legal, I just can't find a field that I am confident won't kill me. Riding in a group takes a lot of practice, something most age groupers do not have time to do. Draft legal creates huge safety concerns, especially if everyone is in a TT position and racing AGAINST each other as opposed to working TOGETHER like a team time trial machine. Maybe that would lead 70.3 down the path of road bikes with clip-on aerobars if they went draft legal with a series. I would watch it. The average age grouper wouldnt need a TT bike anymore.

WTC bought many of those races and killed them. St. A's is a shell of it's former self, Memphis in May doesn't exist anymore, the boulder oly tri, the 5150 series got bought and decimated by WTC. Numerous local RD's had to stop putting on races in bodies of water that WTC used when they contracted with counties/cities. WTC came in and often put a race in 2-6 weeks before a local RD effectively killing that race and now have left that market completely.

But these races also existed back in the day when if you did a 70.3 or IM you were considered weird. Where you could go sub 1:57:15 for an oly at USAT nationals and finish 1 spot outside the top 20 in your AG (ask me how I know).

These races existed when going fast was cool, IM tats weren't a thing, people raced tris to destroy their competitors. Now people like ink, it's a social experience and many don't care if they go 13h or 14h for an IM as long as they can participate with some friends in the event

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

do your best to prioritize your local races (olympic or less) over the 70.3, even if they are grass roots. the media engine suckers people into long distance... dont fall for it! be a leader and help promote others to join

They almost do with regional qualifiers, it just seems people aren't interested in doing them. I would add that they could do a bit more promoting of regionals.

Ah, draft legal races do not allow tri bikes or tri bars. Traditional road bikes are required.
Richmond hosted a draft legal event (moved from Tempe) this past weekend.
Super League is trying to put on a race in Tempe but COVID has nixed in last year & this year.
Tempe is scheduled to host the USAT DL championship & NCAA women's races in mid-November (COVID allowing).

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#swimmingmatters
Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
The Doctor (#12)

In 2019 I actually did 3 halfs, the first was with FS Series racing in NC the other 2 were TWC races.

I'm always encouraging my athletes to race local. It's a great high speed lower stress training day. You can do a 5h training day on Saturday then race a sprint or oly on Sunday and be ready to get back at it mid week. Or you can race a local sprint/oly Saturday, go get an easy swim in later that day and a 3-5h ride in on Sunday and be ready to get back at it mid week.

IMO if someone is racing 10x per season 60-70% of that should be local using the big races as your Key Races and the local races as progress checks.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

When I first started racing there was only one Olympic locally in the Phoenix area or that's what it seemed like. That was Lifetime. I know Tri-Family Racing has been doing Bartlett lake for awhile, but that wasn't on the runningintheusa calendar for whatever reason. So let's say we had two in the Phoenix area.

Now, after a huge contraction in Olympic Distance racing the Phoenix area has a decent amount even though LifeTime has left. It won't bring the same feel, because for whatever reason people don't want to volunteer for some local company.

Tri Family Racing- 2x Bartlett Lake races, 1x Lake Pleasant

4 Peaks Racing- 1x Lake Pleasant and 1x Tempe

heck, this year Tri-Family will have had 3x Bartlett Lake races. Guess I need to get out there.

Then in Flagstaff you have the Mountain Man series of two weekends at Lake Mary, and also the Deuces Wild Endurance Festival in Showlow.

So compared to a couple years ago when I first started racing, there are a lot more options for Olympic distance. Would like some pool sprints for us east siders though. Then you have the normally huge pool Sprint that is the Mesa Tri, last one had close to 1k people.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

I think the solution to the problem may be to introduce several leagues within the league (as per Football/soccer worldwide and other sports already do). If you're in the A league, you do the big championship races and others do smaller Ironmans and 70.3s. Best from B league get to try A league. Or you do like the ITU/World Triathlon does, who gets to race the big championship races is decided by each country's triathlon federation/body. But again that's the problem with having an event organiser (WTC/Ironman or whatever they're called these days) masquerading as a governing body.