So today at Challenge Cap Quebec Nic Gilbert and Tamara Jewett won what was an age group only race. No pro field this year but two licensed professionals Gilbert, who competed at Eagleman couple weekends back in Pro division finishing P13 and at the Challenge Championship few weeks before that P18, won the men’s race and Tamara the women’s race. Tamara as many know here was T100 contracted athlete last year, and this year is all in on Kona after qualifying in Texas (in the pro division) .
If it’s a training day and this is for sponsors then maybe this is okay but being announced as the winner and raising the banner crossing the line first overall is ridiculous. That could’ve been a really big moment for an age group athlete to get to raise the banner and it has been taken away from them. Think about the high level age grouper training away all winter imagining winning thjs race and you show up and faces off against someone in 21st in women’s world rankings (and normally been in top 15). Seems little unfair to me.
Same thing couple weekends back in Tremblant. There we saw an athlete who competes on ITU circuit in world cups win the age group only race. Now for that one I’m not sure if he still holds a pro license so if he doesn’t okay but today in Cap Quebec definitely had two pros winning an age group only race.
Thoughts?
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It may vary from federation to federation. Within the US (you are talking about 2 CAN elites) generally the requirement is that the pro can’t compete in the “age group” part of the race, so many times you’ll end up seeing an open/elite wave; that’s how pro’s can race at “local events”. They also can’t be listed in the AG portion of the specific results and get AG “prizes”.
What happens if the RD doesn’t put them in their own category for said race (even if it is 1 of 1)…good question. But that’s how local races deal with pro’s racing at local events; they simply create an open category that is in addition to the AG category.
In the past I’ve had pro’s have the RD create “open” category at local mom and pop events and it literally be 1 athlete in it, so that it complies with the rules on being allowed to race but not in an “age group” race. And no not to take away from the age group athletes, or to win and raise the banner, but to simply have race opportunities within the proper rules and not take away from the AG race.
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maybe remove age groups below 40+ and make racing categories/divisions and this isn’t a thing anymore.
cycling does it. none of the cat 1/2s think anything of it if a pro shows up and handedly rolls away with the win (as they’d be expected to).
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Ya that’s fair enough. An open category would be the way to go. Today it does look like both are listed as their respective age category winner. Maybe that will change sometime post race, cause definitely should not be listed as 35-39 category winner
That’d definitely be an interesting way of doing it. It would alleviate lot of frustration I’ve seen here on slow twitch and other places when age groupers who are essentially pros, training full time and with a slew of sponsors, win age group at any race they show up at . They are just listed as cat 1 and the cat 3 for example can battle it out with other cat 3
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Yes that may end up being an clerical error. I think in the U.S. if you race under an AG profile and wave, you run the risk of losing your elite license. Theoretically you should know beforehand what wave/race your in, it’s why I’ve had to have RD’s create even single person “open” waves. I know in the past few years when IM has gone to AG only events, and a “pro” won it, I don’t know if they changed their designation or not (I think IM classifies them as a pro and they are in the overall results, just not in the AG results). The penalty is there to basically keep you from doing what your suggesting, taking away from the AG experience. Again as long as they have an separate wave designation even if it’s an “age group only” race, they can clerically race it as a pro. If they don’t get that desiganation for the race, and still race anyways, that may have some undesired consequences by the rulebook.
But again each federation may have different rules, if this was an US elites, they would be in violation of their elite/pro classification being currently placed as an AG athlete within the current race results (again it may clericially be changed at some point). CAN may also not have the same elite classification requirements that the US does for example.
Interesting. So will see if this changes post race, or if not I’ll need to do some research to see on Canadian side what the rule book looks like.
Overall, it is still little strange to me that with all the pro racing opportunities we would still have this happening . Like I understand entering a local sprint/olympic tri as training day, but a Challenge/Ironman 70.3 as a training day and then racing it pretty well full gas (like I just looked up and this is a big PB around 4 minutes over the 70.3 distance for Tamara) seems odd.
lol was waiting for that comment haha. but my identity is hidden I think atleast . Like am I an envious age grouper? Or a pro who is annoyed seeing this happen? you dont know …
So there is the quote from way back in the day of the 1st pro who won the 1st IM AG event. For decades every IM event had atleast a $5k prize purse to allow it to have a pro field. And it’s only been in the last half decade that IM has now created “age group only” events. So the pro was being interviewed week after and getting some ribbing. He basically selfishly admitted, I get to call myself an IM race champion. Now obviously everyone knew the score, he beat a bunch of AG athletes, and so he kinda understood the ribbing, but also kinda was like f it.
(yes IM allows you to be classified as a pro or did at the time and race AG only events; you only counted in overall results).
Thomas was pretty well dog piled when he went and won IMWI as a pro when it was an AG race.
Thanks I couldn’t remember his name, for some reason I kept thinking it was someone else. I think he even went on a podcast where the hosts pretty much gave him the “WTF man”. I think it was even TRS pod, but maybe the timeline doesn’t match.
I never had a pro race an *big time “age group” only race like this or an IM, I’ve had plenty do “local events” that we needed to get added an open wave or race in the open wave already part of the series. Again not to win and act like we’ve done something, but generally to train up for a race within the calendar (usually early season races).
I thought though that Thomas had registered for the race prior to getting his pro card and stayed on the register since it was a hometown race. Didn’t he also turn in his chip before the finish line?
Or maybe I’m misremembering things…
At the same time there are quite a few up and coming developing pros that race ace group while they’re coming up the ranks , even though they train and live like pros.
Also, if we really want to get fussy, Sam Laidlow’s only race to date was at a small local triathlon, in which he was the only pro and there didn’t appear to be a specific pro wave - he just went out first as part of the mass start. (In fairness also, Clement Mignon did a different distance)
He won, accepted the 1st place award, and framed his participation as giving back to the local triathlon scene (presumably via exposure).
Beyond that was there also a pro that wanted to KQ through the AG ranks but was still a pro? I think it was a Spanish pro some years ago. I think it was more of an athlete who raced part pro / part AG throughout the year, was kinda weird. *Normally if your a pro at 1 race your then a pro the rest of the year. Again some federations may have specific differences within the allowances.
No, he was a pro for years, and raced IM moo as a pro multiple times before that happened. Definitely not a signed up then got the pro card.
I do remember there being some ruckus about how he registered even though he’s a pro, like a friend helped him out somehow or something? I never cared enough to learn the ins and outs of it. But I remember hearing the hometown race thing too.
Yes understand on the giving back. But will also say this wasn’t a local sprint tri it was a Challenge 70.3 race so bit bigger scale.
I understand that too but would definitely not say Tamara someone who was a contracted T100 athlete, and Im guessing just turned down a contract this season to do Ironman instead, is an up and coming triathlete. More like established pro who at the moment is still listed as the 35-39 age group winner.