In @Ironmandad 's excellent article I think a few athletes not mentioned are worth noting.
After Geens win in T100 Lake Las Vegas (NB plenty of climb on the bike (1350m), as in Taupo (825m)) he must fancy his chances. Neischlag raced well at T100 LLV too.
In the women’s, Pohle raced very well in both her IM Pro Series 70.3 wins (Tallinn and Zell-am-See) though with less success just now in Bahrain. Findlay will be right up there, certainly ahead of Salthouse.
I appreciate this may distract, but the battle between Marquardt and Barnaby is the most valuable contest on the Sunday, with a $70,000 turnaround/swing between #1 and #2 in the IM Pro Series. Hoegenhaug there to sweep up (could still beat both those two) but will need a good race (no more than 11 minutes down on the winner) to overtake Lange for #3 and $85,000.
Wilms and Berry will score full IM Pro Series points in this race, to lock down #3 and #4 and $85,000/$70,000.
Good critique on article, I also like Genes and Neischlag to be in the race and mentioned. I have this feeling about Paula though, that she is burnt out, tired, and just wants this season to be over. She has been her steady self in the T100 series, but doing better early rather than later. Think she phones this one in, but hope I’m wrong.
And yes the real race within the race is for the top 3 podium spots for the series. 3 guys that never get a mention other than passing, and now in the drivers seats. Matthew and Barnaby will have a barn burner for sure if the latter can get last weeks race out of his legs. There is your first two, and Hoegenhaug should be looking directly at his heart rate and power meters the entire ride, pacing with others near him to do his best time trial. His goal should be to get 20th+ place, within that 11 minute time gap for the biggest money of his career.
Kind of funny how that whole series thing worked out, turned out to be the AAA series for up and comers. Great for them, not so great if you were looking for big names to fill out your podium…Hey Ryan, how’s my tequila doing!! (-;
It is interesting how the Ironman season comes down to two important narratives on the men’s side: who will win the race itself, and nearly if not more important who will win the pro series. I’m not sure if that narrative is worth the extra money Ironman is paying for it, but it certainly adds some excitement across the entire race.
It does end up speaking well to the series that the entire “podium” for both genders in the series will be racing in Taupo. It would have looked bad in retrospect if Lange didn’t even need to show up and he still won. And I don’t even think it was a Blunder for him not to go. His 70.3 racing looked pretty poor this year, so it’s almost like he had no where to go but down after winning in Kona. Who wants to end the year on a down note after you just become the Ironman World Champion?
The one change I’d make going in to 2025 is Ironman should require participation in both the 70.3 Worlds and IMWC to be eligible for any prize money in the Ironman Series.
Geens is one of the favorites here. Having beaten MvR earned him all sorts of street credit in the mid distance world. But I am going to say that the Olympic medalist pedigree will ultimately prevail (e.g. Gomez, Frodo) and Wilde is going to win this.
Looking forward to seeing Ari Klau racing these guys, simply because his mouth rubs me up the wrong way. His race will be over after 25 m in the water.
The 20% base score bonus for both those races is worth >16 minutes and >8 minutes respectively which incentivises athletes to include both in their season’s race schedule.
But that’s a pretty high eligibility criterion/hurdle.
‘Prize money’ in the IM Pro Series goes down to #50.
A fair number (shall not do the research) in the current top 50 (M&W) have not raced an IM let alone the IMWC.
I am off out for a ride (evening group pub ride) but idc I’ll do a check of how many men and how many women are set to race both IMWC and 70.3WC. I suspect it is rather fewer than you think and surely below 20.
50+ of both are on the Taupo start list - and no DNSs so far sfaik.
Thorsten says:
https://www.trirating.com/70-3-world-championship-2024-taupo-dec-14th-and-15th-seedings/
IMWC starter and on this start list:
| Forename | Surname |
|---|---|
| Gregory | Barnaby |
| Braden | Currie |
| Ben | Hamilton |
| Matt | Hanson |
| Kristian | Hogenhaug |
| Matthew | Marquardt |
| Mike | Phillips |
| Kacper | Stepniak |
| Nick | Thompson |
Edit to add the female athletes (in αβ, who raced IMWC and are on the start list here:
| Forename | Surname | Nation |
|---|---|---|
| Alice | Alberts | USA |
| Nikki | Bartlett | GBR |
| Hannah | Berry | NZL |
| Rebecca | Clarke | NZL |
| Julie | Derron | SUI |
| Diede | Diederiks | NED |
| Jackie | Hering | USA |
| Julie | Iemmolo | FRA |
| Danielle | Lewis | USA |
| Kat | Matthews | GBR |
| Fiona | Moriarty | IRL |
| Giorgia | Priarone | ITA |
| Marta | Sanchez | ESP |
| Maja | StageNielsen | DEN |
| Els | Visser | NED |
| Lotte | Wilms | NED |
Ya my point might be a bit controversial, but racing the pro series should require you to at least do an Ironman. And you’re not really racing the series unless you are taking part in what the series offers. Ironman just doling out checks to people based on their standings at the end of the year is different then being a part of the series.
I assume now that IM is investing in the series they’d prefer their Champions don’t just cherry pick their top event and ignore the series. It doesn’t look that great that the two Ironman Champions pretty much ignored the pro series. (Patrick seemed to target his early races to be fair, maybe to hedge his bets, but then walked away once he got what he wanted)
I’m sure the next-tier pros are thrilled about that, because it opens up more pay day options for everyone else. But the year of Ironman racing becomes a lot more interesting if the champions race more often. And if others follow Laura and Patrick and race minimally to target IMWC, that just means even more races are lacking in star power.
Don’t agree with you, the money is only there for those that raced in series races, not other random IM events. As it has shown this year, the fields in the series races were way bigger than other years, some pros missed out on starts earlier in the year as it was unusual and unexpected for the pro fields to fill out early and they weren’t quick enough with their entries. Don’t go changing it, works well for all as is. If they make more races a requirement then likely will remove others. As we saw a number of pro events have been dropped from the calendar already, due to the series, which hurts the development pathway. Don’t need to make it worse. There will always be athletes who target a Worl Champ only race and others who are just out to earn a living who need to race more. Changing things wont change that.
Does anyone actually care about the IM Pro Series ? Does anyone care about T100 Series ? Does anyone care about WCS Series champion?
It’s like baseball, or basketball regular season. Does anyone care who had the most points in regular season.
Remember the 2007 Patriot’s season when they lost in their LAST game (Superbowl vs Giants) but 16-0 in regular season.
I think most of us ONLY care about the 140.6 and 70.3 World’s winner. Who gets what points and series end bonus is just to make gladiators slaves out of pro athletes to be in one series or another.
So who is gonna win a Taupo now that Kona and Nice are done. Who gets what points in between, I can walk to my local pool lane swim with 20 Mdot logo bags on the deck and no one will care (and most don’t even know there is a series on). They will know 140.6 Worlds champions…they may know 70.3 WC winners for a day and then they will forget who it was
No (not all that much), Yes and Yes.
Some of us are interested, and it seems the pro athletes would be as is their livelyhood…
Dev - why do you thrust your take on what’s worth caring about on “most of us”?
And then implicitly contradict yourself, dissing the 70.3WC:
“they may know 70.3 WC winners for a day and then they will forget who it was”
The T100 Tour is the premier non-drafting set of races where the top athletes choose to race against almost every other top athlete through the season, towards a World Championship awarded by Triathlon’s world governing body. Previously they’d get little chance to do so, except for one event a year. And even then the field would be split because only some want to race full distance and the 70.3WC was ‘always’ too close to the IMWC there’d be athletes missing that (eg 2019 Nice, 2022 St George, and 2023 Lahti).
For its part the IM Pro Series is offering/forcing excellent competition among the best athletes who wish to race through the season and not just focus on a one off IMWC. In previous years the top athletes would by design or otherwise avoid one another. At least designation of specific IMs (with a larger prize purse plus the IM Pro Series bonus, list below) means that there’ll be decent competition at the front of those races.
Winning the IM Pro Series or the T100 World Championship Tour in Long Distance requires repeated strong performances as opposed to the one off races we see (this year) at Nice, Kona and Taupo. Those athletes who can’t manage that have fallen by the wayside, this year, e.g.: Long, West, LCB, Sodaro, RvB.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 30-Mar | IRONMAN South Africa African Championship |
| 26-Apr | IRONMAN Texas North American Championship |
| 01-Jun | IRONMAN Hamburg European Championship (F Pro) |
| 15-Jun | IRONMAN Cairns |
| 29-Jun | IRONMAN Frankfurt European Championship (M Pro) |
| 20-Jul | IRONMAN Lake Placid |
| 14-Sep | IRONMAN World Championship – Men’s Race |
| 11-Oct | IRONMAN World Championship – Women’s Race |
I can only speak for myself (not others including pro athletes). I’m interested in all things triathlon as a baseline. But in comparison care (that was the question, not if I’m interested) a lot less about the IM Pro Series compared to the T100 and WTCS. I’m very interested in the 70.3 Worlds fwiw. But even though I’ll be a little interested where the Pro Series proponents finish it’ll pale in comparison to the main race and how it shakes out.
Yep, I did care about who emerges as the best athlete of the season, both in T100 and in WTCS, and it kept me on the edge of my seat.
The IM Pro Series - not so much, but only because the scoring system is flawed, or something is flawed, as we’ve discussed, and as a result it’s minor league baseball or whatever people in America would call it.
I didn’t care much about the 70.3 World’s either when the field was weak AF in Lahti, but now I’ll certainly follow it, despite notable absences. But not like the, you know, the series won by the best guy/gal in the sport.
@Ajax_Bay I asked the question. and I am certain if someone asked the same question you would not be so defensive. I didn’t project anything on you or anyone else. Its everyone’s choice what they care about.
If I talk to riathletes where I live who do local tris (they are a thing in some places), no one knows what T100 is, they don’t know there is an Ironman Pro series, they don’t know there is a WCS, they know about Kona (and now they heard about Nice), some know there is a half Ironman worlds.
Over here in our hard core world of ST, sure many of us know all the ins and outs of triathlon (I largely have followed it all for 35 years, but I don’t expect most of my local age group friends who may do a couple of sprints, a couple of olympics and a half IM annually (in other words they are serious athletes, they just race what is nearby, and don’t care about pros) , to know what we are talking about.
But there is another angle here.
If you fast forward say ten years from now, almost NEVER do people remember the winnners of any series. Back when Tinley and Browning were chasing the overall IM series points, Mark Allen and Dave Scott were worrying about winning the single day in Kona. Very few people remember who won the series, but we know the Kona winners. That was mainly where I was going.
I think Patrick Lange has the right idea sitting out Taupo. He won Kona and no one will remember if he wins the series and he likely won’t do that well in Taupo.
@Ajax_Bay one more point related to these longer series and you pointed out to athletes falling off the wayside. In a long term career management exercise, a lot of these longer races at full throttle is not great. Half IM or Olympic racing is probably OK to do often (T100, WCS), but the problem of the IM Series is that the full IM is involved. Racing too soon after full IM’s ends up being playing with fire. Lucy is an example after IM Nice pulling up injured at T100 London.
Blu was on fire at Frankfurt in the third week of August. We could say that an IM in August had no impact on Kona 7-8 weeks later, but based on history that’s not so clear cut.
Mark Allen used to say, “the germans can kill themselves in July in Roth, but they won’t be ready for Kona”. Mark would focus on Olympic tri racing largely all year (maybe do Nice in June which is much shorter) and be ready for one really hard day in Kona
The two guys I have seen who could be fast enough to win July and fast again in October (to win or podium) were Frodeno and Kienle. Crowie always saved his IM legs for Kona only. The one year he went full throttle twice (2012 in Melbourne when he ran toe to toe with Cam Brown {2:41) and ended up running sub 2:38 in March just 5 months after Kona), he was 20th place in 2012 in Kona. As a 3x Champ that was the one year he tried to do two fast IM’s and he was slow in Kona after being on fire in Melbourne
Most athletes cant win Kona, these series events give more pros the opportunity to make some good money. They can choose to save themselves for one good race, one great day, or spread a bit thinner and race well a few times but still possibly be in the money. This suits different athletes and i believe more pros will be able to choose their best option on how its best for them to make their income to stay in the sport.
I think it’s pretty funny that we just pound on the Pro Series like it was meant to be the best athletes in the world competing against each other. Honestly - I think the Euro athletes will be more choosy with their races next year - Barnaby racing more competitive European IMs cost him points that MM got racing in NA. But yes…the honors will go to the Kona/Nice winners and 70.3 winners but it’s still a fun thing that we are actually talking about!
I was thinking about it like golf, Nascar…people don’t follow the Fed Ex Cup like the majors - but it’s still something for the athletes to chase and fans to talk about. The Pro Series is like this a bit. I would propose that the Pro Series actually have one race post Marbella next year - an invite for the top 50 and make it a stand alone points race thing at like…La Quinta or WA or Bahrain - and that would give IM another marquise event that would potentially make the series more important by showcasing it at the end of the year.
Ultimately - we have a couple interesting stories for discussion thru the races (especially if Knibb goes away and hides) and I find the 8 minute thing wild with the idea of Wilde, Bergere, Geens pushing the race beyond the other two - and a true head to head with Barnaby and Marquardt (and their PTO event rankings are identical until the run where Barnaby is ranked higher) and in theory, you could have a race to the death for 12th that truly means something. We have so much speculation but this could truly be pretty awesome for the sport and introduce us to some new characters.
You asked a question that had all the marks of a rhetorical question.
And then you asked “how many of us care”, and now you’re claiming that by “us” you mean “all age groupers at all races” and not the ST community.
Looks a lot like moving the goal posts… but thanks for the clarification.
I think a bunch of you are taking this personally. I suppose it is like coming into an bar and asking if anyone cares about drinking hard liquor, so that’s my fault. I should have made it clear that triathletes in general, likely don’t care about what people on ST care about. I don’t think that is a moving goal post, that is the reality of what is out there.
I would bet that Ironman kills their pro series as soon as T100 is no longer financially solvent. It is good for the pros who are able to make a living thanks to T100 (and the implied pressure on Ironman with the Ironman series), but my gut feel is the majority of triathletes around the world don’t care about these series, just like fans don’t care about regular season results in most pro sports. I agree it is good for the pros who make a living, but most age groupers sadly barely care about pros.
Buts it’s of course the same as with nice world champs , those things need time to easblish themselves . it does not happen in 1 year .
And one year ago I would have agreed if t100 finish of pro series will stop. Now I AM not so sure , I guess they would just reduce the price money