Wow, wouldn't this significantly impact the Steelhead participation? It would about the same time of race calendar and a little farther north but still pulling the same midwest crowd.

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https://www.strava.com/athletes/23685202

3.5 hours farther north and I guarantee the lodging is going to be twice as much and book up twice as fast.

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2019 T-Rex Tri Series

If the city agrees to it, my guess is that Steel Head will be discontinued.

Much further for the Chicagoland crowd. That being said, I expect it will still get plenty of participants. There has been quite the buzz in our local clubs this morning!

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

That would be a shame. Steelhead is such a great race! Just like Raleigh was (I know the city pretty much ruined that one) & B2B full.

Is there a trend here?

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

I think there's room for both, although it will hurt Steelhead numbers. I doubt it will hurt as much as the cancelled swims did. I could see Steelhead as a Chicago/Midwest race and TC as more of a destination race. It would be nice if there was a little more time between the 2 to make it easier to do both. Maybe Steelhead moves a few weeks earlier.

I love that area and will be first in line when registration opens. I'll be up there this weekend for Cherry-Roubaix.

Thats a great area. Guarantees a wetsuit swim and a flatish bike. Fantastic choice for IM.

Given when they want to operate this race, it seems like a direct shot at Michigan Titanium in Grand Rapids to me. Which is a shame -- it's a fantastic independent race.

We've vacationed up there several times. Most mornings, the water is smooth as glass. It's super clear, too. I love open water swimming in the bay. This venue might be the one that encourages me to step up to the HIM distance.

As for lodging, it seems the season starts to tail off mid-August. There might be some deals to be found the late in the summer, especially on Airbnb

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

The article specifically addresses why they chose that weekend. Hard to believe they would value hurting a small independent race 100 miles away more that finding a time frame that works with the local resources. I doubt MiTi is even on their radar. If that were the intent, I think they would have gone after the GR Tri.

It makes sense to have a 70.3 up there, and the logic makes sense as kids have been going back to school earlier around here and I'm sure the tourism dollars have dropped a bit in late August, but my first thought is that it might be a shot at MiTi. Steelhead 2 weeks before, then MiTi, the 70.3 TC... that's a lot of races in a short time frame. Also, didn't 3D put on a 70.3 up there this year, maybe in July?

I think this will pull a somewhat different crowd than Steelhead. As someone else mentioned, lots of IL people come up for Steelhead. The other thing that people don't always realize is how many people fly in from out of state, New York especially, or so I've been told. They can fly into Traverse City and have a nice house on a lake for a heck of a lot less than they can do so in NY.

MITI allready dropped the hammer with picking their date so close to Steelhead to begin with didn’t they.

And it wouldn’t be the first time IM did something like this, they have history doing the same thing with the Challenge brand globally I believe. The odd thing is they would also be cannibalizing off themselves with Steelhead.

This would be awesome if they moved it to TC. Its only 40 minutes from the house and an awesome place to ride. They have a tri up there now that does sprint to Olympic distances in July, they used to have the half, but stopped last year or the year before.

I don't know - we may have a different definition of flatish here in the southern part of the state, but I'd expect some roll and some hills. I guess I've only driven in the Leelanau, but it doesn't strike me as a fast course. Beautiful for sure, but not fast like a Muncie or even Steelhead.

I'd expect a wetsuit swim a well, but it might not be guaranteed. Steelhead was non-wetsuit legal two years ago.

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

If they go out and back on the Leelanau Trail it'll be faster than Steelhead. There are, like, three false flats on that trail, AND it's closed to traffic. But remains to be seen what the course is!

Is that part of the TART? The sections I’ve been on in town were pretty narrow, but no idea about that way.

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

The tri up there now uses the roads out in cherry/apple farm country

That would be my guess, something pretty close to the Cherry-Roubaix routes. Straight north toward Sutton's Bay would be fairly flat. If it goes more west, it could be pretty hilly. I'm not sure the trail is wide enough for any significant portion of the race.

Bayshore Marathon course up the Old Mission Peninsula for the run could be completely flat. Article says Front street would be closed for the finish line, I like it.

My 1 and only Steelhead to date!

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

This is hilarious:

"...with each race participant boasting an annual average household income of $247,000..."

I grew up in Michigan and spent every summer as a kid in Northport which is at the top of the Leelanau penninsula. I also have ridden up there a bunch, it rolls a little but it is flat based on my perspective now. I seriously doubt there are any sustained climbs that go up or down more than 100 feet.

You'd be surprised on the hills you can find in the area. M72 and Grandview rise ~400 feet in 2 miles out of the west bay. Which is a "big" hill for Michigan. But like a previous poster said there are plenty of flat roads along the coast that the WTC would most likely use.

Really depends on which way the course goes...it could be really flat along the bay or a monster if up the center of the Leelanau. There is enough elevation change in that area to create a killer course or if it is an out and back on M22 (which I doubt) it will be very flat. I imagine the run would be kept mostly along the lake shore on Old Mission peninsula otherwise crossing over the center of the peninsula and coming back would destroy most people...but with some epic views.

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_____________________
Fester from Detroit, Mi

Wow! I'm really happy for you guys. And maybe a tad jealous.

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Brian