Just wish there was something they could do to the bike leg, to stop it being such a procession. Drafting is a necessary evil with such big numbers and short distances unfortunately , but every course should have to have some punchy climbs or challenging descents to give people a chance to attack and create gaps
Agreed, unfortunately not gonna happen because the cities that pay to have races expect for the city center to be shown in the broadcast.
So when you’re lucky, you get a Karlovy Vary world cup where the city is super hilly, or Supertri Toulouse with a course that just makes the athletes navigating the corners and corridors of the city center look very fast (as well as giving them ample opportunities to escape the group).
Otherwise, it’s your typical Yokohama or Hamburg or a parking lot in Malibu. Still goes by way quicker than a 180 km flat featureless IM bike leg in Texas or Florida.
What World Triathlon could be more open to is changing up racing formats (let them steal* ideas from Supertri if they have to, like they have already with the Montreal eliminator). If you’ve already swum, biked, run and then swum again, you’re not going to get the usual sort of a peloton on the second bike leg. The mixed team relay is fantastic in breaking up groups, too, but weaker federations can’t field quality teams (or any teams sometimes) and stronger federations often refuse to field quality teams.
*the enduro, as I recently found out, was already raced in the 90s in Australia as the “St. George Triathlon Grand Prix” now available on YouTube.