Announcing a brand new gravel & trail multisport event and concept: Triquest Triathlon
Triquest is a new gravel tri format aiming to bring a series of USAT accredited events to the multisport universe.
Our inaugural event will be September 6, 2025 in Ludlow Vermont. We will accommodate both individual & relay team entries.
Please visit our site for more information & registration details, introductory pricing ends 5/18/25
I guess I am going to have to start swimming again. . .
Ouch. 4k of downhill trail to the finish…
That looks awesome. All the best of luck to the race director and the race team
Firstly thanks for taking the initiative to put this on. The sport is nothing without local race directors, so thank you.
To make this post more useful without taking us off to another website (and that is fine after we have more information), can you add the distances and if there are different race options what they are, what the course is like (technical, non technical), elevation gain/drop on bike and run, is run course technical off road with roots and rocks or is it a flat unpaved path/road, is it camping onsite or hotels nearby.
With only a link to go somewhere, many won’t click on the link without a bit more bait.
thanks @devashish_paul , sound advice! so here goes.
this is meant to be a down home event as the original AmZof was in it’s classic years, which I’ve done 3x. A transition area staked out with wood posts & ribbon, good food and a non-commercial feel
-the swim is a one mile lake swim. we will have a good contingent of kayakers & paddleboarders lining the course for safety along with 2 lifeguards, one in our power boat. Course here - Ride with GPS | Bike Route Planner and Cycling Navigation App
-the bike (27 mi/2900’ climbing), is on dirt roads. Most are hardpacked. While the nearby gravel race, The Overland, is known for it’s Class 4 roads, we wanted to make this a very doable event from a technical perspective. There is one significant climb of 2 miles at average of 10%. 70% of the total bike course is unpaved. I think a good cyclist (from bike handling perspective) could do this course on a road bike, but would want a gravel bike for puncture resistance and high speed handling on gravelly downhills. The bike course will have one aid station at Mile 13.
view the course here - Ride with GPS | Bike Route Planner and Cycling Navigation App
-the 8.4 mile run is mostly on a class 4 road, the first / last mile is a very good dirt road (same first mile of bike course). The 2nd & 3rd miles is where you turn on the class 4 road and immediately climb 800’+ over the next two miles. This section is a bit gnarly, and probably resembles a stream bed in wet weather. Once the road flattens out it’s a very runable class 4. But the climb definitely has a few gnarly spots. We are working with a landowner to utilize a spot 3/4 mile from the current turnaround and to shorten the course by 1.4 miles. We will have one aid station at the turnaround.
view the run here - Ride with GPS | Bike Route Planner and Cycling Navigation App
We will be having music and food after the race. Athletes meal, with vegetarian option, is included in the pricing ($135-175 depending on when you sign up), we are also providing a relay option as well. Spectators will be able to buy food as well.
Based on my own performance as a top10% age Grouper (60yo), the time to complete this event will be similar to a fast 70.3 for most people. (think musselman/ Jones Beach)
We are based out of a Vermont State Park, and there are campsites adjacent to transition available directly from VT. (need to add that to our site, thanks!)
Our website has a list of local hotel options and given that we are 5 miles from Okemo, there are a ton of STRs available once you are off the lake, being outside of ski season and prior to leaf season, pricing is quite low.
Love to hear more questions & Comments.
Best
Scott
Thanks Scott, this is very cool. As you are 60+ my first half Ironman was at the Green Mountain Steelman in Brattleboro VT in 1986. Kenny Souza won that event,
I don’t own a gravel bike (yet) as with my lumbar disc challenges, I only ride on smooth roads, but maybe I can work my way up to this in 2026 assuming you have it again. It sounds like an event where we just need to be comfortable on a non paved “road” which was the type of mountain biking I used to enjoy when I did a lot of that
Dev
I am technically a NYer who spends 40% of thier time in VT, so I wasn’t around VT or Tri for that matter in '86.
assuming you have a MTB with any suspension, if you aren’t concerned with your time and more about enjoying a new kind of event, you can use that for our event. You’ll probably need the gears for our 2 mile 10% climb!
but, yes, hard packed roads with loose gravel cover in some places. nothing technical. I am not expecting miracles in the sign up department and expect to lose some money on year one, but our goal is to build something lasting, so we are focusing on putting on a quality event and getting the word out for next year.
thanks again for the positivity!
Thank you for putting this event on. I had been wanting a gravel triathlon in New England since I started gravel racing doing my first Rasputitsa in 2016. While I have moved down south since then, I will come back up for this event and race it on my old gravel bike (the one I raced Rasputitsa way back when) which I keep at my parents house in MA. It’s an old aluminum Felt V55 with quick release wheels, IS mount breaks, and only enough tire clearance for 35mm width, but based on your course description sounds like that should be fine.
Are the run and bike courses as posted here and on the web site able to be pre-ridden/run, or do they cross private land that you’ve secured access to for race day only? It all looks like it should be public, but I wanted to confirm.
thanks for the inquiry and a very good question. The roads are all public.
I think that anyone that knows what they are doing will be fine on the road with 35s. I had previously ran my gravel bike with Rene Herse 36s that were like slicks on some of the easier Class 4s around here that are much worse than anything you will find on this course. As I am sure you know, it’s all about pressure and what you can get out of the tire.
I’d go a little easy on the downhills especially the ripper at mile 23.5…
sounds like you know more than average duck as to what is going on. Feel free to PM me for intel, and join the FB group! Please post pics there of your pre-ride! / run…
Awesome, thanks for the confirmation and info. I’ll be sure to PM for any more info.
While I love my modern plush 45-48mm tires, I did cut my teeth on OG VT gravel races (Muddy Onion, The Overland, Ride the Ridges, Rasputitsa) often in muddy and wet conditions (snow and sleet a few times) with the usual Class IV roads running 34-36mm tires. I just need to brush the dust off some of those skills.
Thanks again for putting this on, super excited for it!
if you’ve done overland and not hoped your bike except to get up the rich trail, you can do this on a unicycle! double bonus if you did VOMAR the year it snowed the day before!
I lived in Plymouth swam in Echo Lake for training) and use to do a road triathlon from that same lake. This should be awesome environment / course for this!
