Many of you have likely heard a bit about Daniel Cassidy's Major League Triathlon Series. The formats have changed over 3 years, but the basic concept has remained the same. Bring fast - dynamic - multi lap - short triathlons into areas with already made crowds. Instead of having longer races, miles from populations early in the morning, Daniel and his team envisioned bringing short races to crowds. Like many of you, I knew a bit about the series, but didn't follow it that closely. I did think however that any USA based series that brought prize money to pros was a good thing.
I was fortunate that Daniel approached me this spring about helping provide some commentary and media support to his four 2018 races. The more I learned about the races and about Daniel's team, the more impressed I was. The 2018 format has the real makings to leave a permanent foot-print in the USA and some much needed race opportunities for short course athletes in North America.
The newest version of Daniel's Major League Triathlon is simple. Nine Teams have been created (with 6-8 athletes) and at each of the four races, two men & two women must represent their organization. Theoretically the same four athletes could do all four races, or every race could be a different combination. Its up to the team and their management who races (but it has to be 2 men and 2 women each time).
Each race minimally has a MIXED TEAM RELAY RACE. Roughly 300m swim - 6 to 8km bike and 1600 (1 mile run). For those who are unfamiliar with the mixed team format, its fast and many transition changes can lead to dramatic lead changes. Each athlete races roughly 18-20 minutes (75-80min total race time) and the crowd gets to see the athletes every 3-4 minutes going by the transition zone. With the Mixed Team Relay now an official, full medal sport at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, more opportunities to race the Mixed Team Format is of great value.
Some of the race venues also have a super sprint individual race (in addition to the Mixed Team Race Format). The Avon-Vail Colorado race this weekend, will have the pros race mid-day in a super sprint race individually, then 90min later race on a Mixed Team. While the Ironman has taken the sport of triathlon longer and longer, the Tokyo Mixed Team Relay, the ITU Mixed Team Series and Daniel Cassidy's Major League Triathlon Series have / will provide more fast paced exciting racing.
The nine teams are an interesting mixture of athletes. Three of the teams are Nationally based (Toronto Freeze from Canada, Gold Coast Tritons from Australia and the Guadalajara:Gauardines based in Mexico). A number of the teams are based around their training squads and coaches. Paulo Sousa's California Squad, Ian Obrien's ITU Squad, Neal Henderson Colorado based squad and Jono Hall's Arizona-Victoria based training Squad are four teams where the coach provides 4 athletes per race from their training group. The final two teams were put together by senior athletes Ben Kanute and John O'Neil.
Because Daniel Cassidy and the Major League Triathlon Series have complete control over the product, they are able to modify some rules to keep things interesting. Today instead of having the traditional women-men-women-men order for the mixed team races, they are changing things up and going men-women-men-women. Already there has been a trade of an athlete from one team to another.
I know that USA Triathlon are monitoring the new race series and there will be support for younger athletes to get some race experience in this new fast format. Major League Triathlon has a development race today, that will allow up to 3 men and 3 women from the morning community race the chance to race against the pros for the prize purse this afternoon.
With Olympians like Ben Kanute (USA), Ryan Sissons (New Zealand) and Ryan Fisher (Australia) committed to the series, and some 2018 ITU stars like Emma Jeffcoat (Australia), Tyler Spivey (USA) and Cam Dye (USA legend) each of the four races will have exciting racing. When you have been around the sport as long as I have, you start to understand whether a product has the legs to really stick around and make a difference. Daniel and his wife, his brother, his mother and a number of world class race organizers are the back-bone of the four races series.
From day one, Daniel's team ensured that athletes had travel budgets, great pre-post celebrations with their fans, and growing prize money. The WTS Series in the ITU will remain the standard for the sport at short-course racing, but I have no doubt that Major League Triathlon is here to stay and has an important role in the USA landscape. There are some great new young faces on some of the nine teams to go along with the Olympians and established pros. Take some time to check out Major League Triathlon and give the modest-but important new racing format a chance. 2018 races are in Atlantic City (2 weeks ago), Avon (Vail) Colorado (today), Tempe Arizona Sept 22nd and North Carolina Oct 6th. Daniel has wisely picked his race dates to not compete against major ITU and USA events so that the athletes can race in as many series and formats as possible.
With a modest production budget for the initial internet shows, our team will do the best we can to create a fun-energetic and hopefully interesting product for viewers to tune into. If you haven't checked out a race or two, maybe give it a look and understand that our sport has a role for many great contributors and whether its 70.3, Ironman, Super League, ITU, Olympics or Major League, there is a place for everyone.
Barrie Shepley
Major League Triathlon Series Internet Host
I was fortunate that Daniel approached me this spring about helping provide some commentary and media support to his four 2018 races. The more I learned about the races and about Daniel's team, the more impressed I was. The 2018 format has the real makings to leave a permanent foot-print in the USA and some much needed race opportunities for short course athletes in North America.
The newest version of Daniel's Major League Triathlon is simple. Nine Teams have been created (with 6-8 athletes) and at each of the four races, two men & two women must represent their organization. Theoretically the same four athletes could do all four races, or every race could be a different combination. Its up to the team and their management who races (but it has to be 2 men and 2 women each time).
Each race minimally has a MIXED TEAM RELAY RACE. Roughly 300m swim - 6 to 8km bike and 1600 (1 mile run). For those who are unfamiliar with the mixed team format, its fast and many transition changes can lead to dramatic lead changes. Each athlete races roughly 18-20 minutes (75-80min total race time) and the crowd gets to see the athletes every 3-4 minutes going by the transition zone. With the Mixed Team Relay now an official, full medal sport at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, more opportunities to race the Mixed Team Format is of great value.
Some of the race venues also have a super sprint individual race (in addition to the Mixed Team Race Format). The Avon-Vail Colorado race this weekend, will have the pros race mid-day in a super sprint race individually, then 90min later race on a Mixed Team. While the Ironman has taken the sport of triathlon longer and longer, the Tokyo Mixed Team Relay, the ITU Mixed Team Series and Daniel Cassidy's Major League Triathlon Series have / will provide more fast paced exciting racing.
The nine teams are an interesting mixture of athletes. Three of the teams are Nationally based (Toronto Freeze from Canada, Gold Coast Tritons from Australia and the Guadalajara:Gauardines based in Mexico). A number of the teams are based around their training squads and coaches. Paulo Sousa's California Squad, Ian Obrien's ITU Squad, Neal Henderson Colorado based squad and Jono Hall's Arizona-Victoria based training Squad are four teams where the coach provides 4 athletes per race from their training group. The final two teams were put together by senior athletes Ben Kanute and John O'Neil.
Because Daniel Cassidy and the Major League Triathlon Series have complete control over the product, they are able to modify some rules to keep things interesting. Today instead of having the traditional women-men-women-men order for the mixed team races, they are changing things up and going men-women-men-women. Already there has been a trade of an athlete from one team to another.
I know that USA Triathlon are monitoring the new race series and there will be support for younger athletes to get some race experience in this new fast format. Major League Triathlon has a development race today, that will allow up to 3 men and 3 women from the morning community race the chance to race against the pros for the prize purse this afternoon.
With Olympians like Ben Kanute (USA), Ryan Sissons (New Zealand) and Ryan Fisher (Australia) committed to the series, and some 2018 ITU stars like Emma Jeffcoat (Australia), Tyler Spivey (USA) and Cam Dye (USA legend) each of the four races will have exciting racing. When you have been around the sport as long as I have, you start to understand whether a product has the legs to really stick around and make a difference. Daniel and his wife, his brother, his mother and a number of world class race organizers are the back-bone of the four races series.
From day one, Daniel's team ensured that athletes had travel budgets, great pre-post celebrations with their fans, and growing prize money. The WTS Series in the ITU will remain the standard for the sport at short-course racing, but I have no doubt that Major League Triathlon is here to stay and has an important role in the USA landscape. There are some great new young faces on some of the nine teams to go along with the Olympians and established pros. Take some time to check out Major League Triathlon and give the modest-but important new racing format a chance. 2018 races are in Atlantic City (2 weeks ago), Avon (Vail) Colorado (today), Tempe Arizona Sept 22nd and North Carolina Oct 6th. Daniel has wisely picked his race dates to not compete against major ITU and USA events so that the athletes can race in as many series and formats as possible.
With a modest production budget for the initial internet shows, our team will do the best we can to create a fun-energetic and hopefully interesting product for viewers to tune into. If you haven't checked out a race or two, maybe give it a look and understand that our sport has a role for many great contributors and whether its 70.3, Ironman, Super League, ITU, Olympics or Major League, there is a place for everyone.
Barrie Shepley
Major League Triathlon Series Internet Host