Tongue in cheek title after last year’s popular criticism.
T100 Singapore April 5
70.3 St. George May 10
T100 San Fran - May 31
t100 Vancouver - June 15
Ironman Nice (qualified) Sept 14
Ironman Chatt - Sept 28
T100 Vegas - TBD
70.3 Worlds - Nov 8
T100 Grand Final December 13
(Indian Wells Dec 7)???
Pretty Clear heavy front and back half of season and prioritizing Ironman while doing the minimum T100. I think T100 went a little soft on their requirements this year.
Not bashing but is this correct? 2 IM’s in 2 weeks?
Per his recent youtube upload. Wants to get his Kona slot
John Wayne and Albert Einstein bobble heads on my dashboard are vying for attention.
He mentioned in the video that when he’s fit and at his peak he performs well back to back so it’s not a bad strategy. Although it’s a little different going from one state to another compared to one side of the world to the other.
But he automatically qualifies when he wins Nice, doesn’t he?
Seems pretty reasonable to me, good middle break to switch some trainings for full distance. And I assume the Chatt race is not in the series this year? If so, then perhaps he doesn’t need a blowout race to just get that Kona slot, in which case should be doable with a much weaker field.
But this race should also be in the throw away pile if Vegas butts up against it too close and he is doing well in the series at that point. He could also pivot earlier if he had blow out races in the ironman series and T100 is not going so well.
I think an easily manageable schedule provided he is firing on all or most cylinders…
My sole suggestion on what looks a very reasonable schedule is that Long races Frejus at the end of June (two weeks after Vancouver). Still a long block (10 weeks) to prepare for Nice, and the chance to build some Nice bike course recce time before or after.
He is contracted to race 4 regular season T100s and this will allow him to choose after Nice (and Chat!) whether to race T100 Lake Las Vegas in October ('cos his body will need October off).
Then rev up for Marbella and Abu Dhabi T100 GF.
This schedule highlights to me that T100 LLV will be given a good swerve by even the men who want to race the 70.3 World Champs. There will be a fair few women missing T100 LLV because of IMWC on 11 October. And with the T100 GF pushed back to late November any wanting to race (and qualified) for Marbella will swerve T100 Dubai.
Are the T100 contracts basically the min number of events your required to do and thus paid for, or is a “full” contract and athletes can “game” it by then doing the min number of races (but be paid as a “full time” contracted athlete?)?
Obviously at some point Long is going to become more of a long course athlete than a T100 “middle” distance specialist, so I can understand he’s basically covering all his bases w/ T100 race requirements (which he is getting paid to do) and then going for 70.3/IM Worlds as well.
More curious if the contract athletes signed, they can still sorta “game” it, or did T100 wise up and only paying athletes basically the min requirements, thus your seeing some do the bare min requirements even though they are “contracted” athletes?
IE is it some base salary + paid X for every race they enter w/ min races mandatory, if you race more your simply getting X each time you race additionally?
Not sure what you mean by “game the system”? I doubt any T100 athlete signed up to do all of the series races, and a fulfilled requirement is to do the required max number of races that actually count. I’m not privy to whether they get a little bump for doing more than that amount, but doing enough races for a full score is not gaming the system as you put it…
Thus my question, did the T100 “wise up” and sorta only pay athletes for “minimum” race pay structure + X payment per race if they do more than the min required races? What i meant by “gaming” was basically cheeky way of saying athletes are doing what they did last year, covering all their basis so to speak with their race schedule (take the “money” race the minimum requirements and still be able do to the races that probaly matter to them; Long is likely only doing T100 at this point because of the contract money and again why not it’s essentially “free” money, with how “competitive” it’s only going to continue to get get, his chances of winning aren’t in T100 any longer within the sport).
So whatever you want to call it. If the 1 race organization is paying you to race a bunch of money, I just chuckle that THAT race organization continues to operate in this manner of so many big names racing the “minimum” races. It atleast puts the nails in the coffin of the T100 lasting as long as this money train lasts, almost no chance of it contining if this is how it continues to get run by the race and the racers.
Thus why I’m curious what the actual “contract” is. If it’s a blanket sum and athletes are basically choosing to race “minimums” to then race events they are doing, that is “short sighted” (but again I get it, most people think T100 won’t make it so why not just take the money while it lasts I guess). But if they are only being paid to race minimum schedule and no more, then you can understand why athletes are choosing schedules like the above.
And of course T100 is still in the entertainment business so “big names” help; in that aspect everything matters when it’s a startup. Hell the women’s races will likely benefit from minimum races like Knibb (has her schedule been released?). Her “domination” while super impressive from an sport standpoint is potentially “boring” from an broadcast viewership standpoint.
I think it’s pretty solid actually. He’s clearly going to get a strong build in all the way to that first event and ride that fitness for a couple months then take a step back and build to Nice.
The later season T100s he likely figures his fitness will be what ever it is and doesn’t need to make it the top priority, whatever he might say for PR reasons.
With all the fire power in the t100, a top 10 overall for the year is going to be very respectable for him and anywhere near top 5 is fantastic. If he went all in on the t100 he likely wouldn’t move that needle too much.
Just keep chipping away at the swim and hope something clicks!
Is that obvious? He’s (his words) “got really good at MD”. The lure of LD is there but consistent competence is not (see Frankfurt; though the bike-run at Chat earned him his IMWC start slot).
There are 8 regular season T100 races and the GF. Was it Findlay or Funk who said they’d dropped it from a contracted 5 +GF to 4 +GF late on (GF = mandatory). I guess they had push back from several key athletes (e.g. those who wish to race IMWC and need to race an IM to get a slot (not Long)) who were minded /‘threatened’ not to sign if 5+GF.
To do well an athlete has to get 4 good scores before GF. Clearly racing 5 or more allows the odd poor result to be dropped. There’s an attraction to racing more than 4: the prize money for each race is way better than a 70.3 though of course the T100 competition is fierce. I see any ‘gaming’ jibe as invalid or just a vocab struggle.
There are three revenue streams: a base amount (paid in full if contract satisfied); opportunity to win prize money each race; and the T100 final standings payout. Add to that if first 10, a ‘gold’ contract for 2026.
For all the contracted athletes’ sakes I hope that the PTO can achieve the funding needed to pay the various promised monies.
I think it’s obvious that Sam Long’s T100 career is going to be shorter than longer based on many real factors. And I lump 70.3 + IM into “long course” and I put T100 into MD, even though T100 and 70.3 are super close. But they are miles apart imo within the sport within racing opportunities. You have so many 70.3 races you can race within the Pro Series and outside of it, that you can bag a win at a B level event at times to check off the “look mom I won a race this year”. T100 is so clearly defined that the “demands of competition” are much more stricter there and really only going to remain that way, even if they go from 8-10 races. Maybe he can sneak a win or podium at 1 of the US events that may have a “weaker” field, but with the race cap so small, even a “weaker” field is going to be full of top talent at pretty much any T100 race this year and likely always moving forward.
Maybe we need to have a discussion on what is or isn’t b****y good. I don’t think Long’s last half of season even by him would be described as that (even though overall yes it was that good). Thus the whole “what races should I do”. I mean it was by default he would race this exact schedule. Covers his T100 contract while likely racing the races he wants too. As I said a t100 contract year for him is essentially free money to race events that he can sorta mark his swim progress. I think this helps him far more long term for LC than any t100 wins or championships,
If Long really was ‘all on for Nice’ then the best preparation would include a spring IM. But his T100 contract (and the need to race 3+ T100s by end June) means that’s not practical. Hence compromise.
At least he’ll have a new coach to bounce his programme and ideas off.
Who’s his new coach? (or was that just a joke)?
@Titanflexr that video always highlights the tough part of an endurance sport. You basically only get paid if you win or do well, and pretty much EVERY race you do is not a “home” race; even worse when what half the travel includes international travel. There’s no 2nd place here- hits home when he talks about his need for win bonuses to provide for his family and if he has to, he’ll just add more races back end of season to achieve that.
Have to agree that T100 went soft on contractual commitments from 5 races + GF to only 4 which makes it more friendly towards those who main goal is IMWC.
I guess we will see a lot of wild cards being issued all year round which is always interesting as it allows for break-out performances or stars to emerge!!
The only way for them to not go soft would be to pay so much that PTO series win pays more than kona win including sponsor bonuses .
It’s clear they don’t want to or can’t do that so they can’t log people in to much , and you see already a lot of the big names gave the pto a miss .
So they have to find the right balance and I think they are doing well and they closed some loopholes from last year as contracts seem to be more performance based.
It’s def a balance, which again makes it tough on all parties. You just had one of the biggest “names” in the sport do a race schedule release and the jist of the whole video is “I can’t wait to get back to IM racing”. and oh yeah I’m required to do T100 cus I took the contract this year. Listen to what got him excited and what didn’t (but of course his swim deficit is a buzz kill at T100 distance with the build up of stronger and stronger T100 race rosters). And again more power to him, it was basically a no-brainer to take the contracted money especially as he’s still got a decade + in the sport to complete his IM career. And his swim is still an issue whether it’s T100 or 70.3/IM WC’s so why not get “paid” to train up for your key weakness.
One thing I thought was interesting. His year is only going to be “swim focused” training up until the races start. I actually would advise that the “free” money this year gives him the freedom to “keep training the swim full stop” and take out the result pressure so to speak. (Take 1 step back now for a bigger gain later on down the road pathway). So it’ll be interesting to see what happens to his swim progression once the “swim block” suddenly turns back into “tri training mode” (adding full on bike+run workouts).
If your looking at it from a far, he talks about doing the process the right way (talks about paying attention to his vibes and taking better care for himself), but then also talks about the pressures he feels to provide for his family and that is solved from winning. Those 2 things don’t necessarily jive well if your also in a phase of your career where you truly must solve a key weakness. I’d have hoped that T100 money would actually take off pressure to provide for family and not worry about “winning”. This is now the 2nd video he talks about the importance of what winning does for him. That outcome goal imo doesn’t necessarily mesh well with also trying to be process oriented in a time of his career where he really is in must fix swim phase of his training or else.