T100 has lots of the top guys/gals show up when they are not in top form just to fulfil the contracts and get a chunk of the PTO $$$ (while they last). You see athletes like Haug, Phillip, RVB, etc. phone it in at a T100, when they would just pass on a 70.3 and do a training block.
Take away the $$$ (or make them equal to IM’s) and no one would care about the T100.
“T100 has lots of the top guys/gals show up when they are not in top form”
Yes; and?
Allow me to defend Philipp: all her results were full effort (no “phoning in”): #3, #4 #7 #7.
“Take away the $$$ (or make them equal to IMs) and no one would care about the T100.”
Not sure what your point is? Professional athletes “care” less to race events with lower prize purse and more if the prize structure is high(er)?
Kind of what I am saying. but everyone only has 2 maybe 3 top days a year so the ironman skilled need to use those days to there fullest and the Speed / endurance guys have to focus those days to their fullest. That said I don’t think they are Phoning it in it’s more so just not suited to the race pace and energy system needed.
You can have a ironman pace at 4:00-4:10 per km, but your T100 pace is 3:45 a km Just not skilled for the speed vs the efficiency. Then you can have a guy that has speed for a 3:15 km for 18 km but gets leg and hydration issues at 3:45 a km for 2 plus hours.
T100 picked the best folks they could , next year 8-10 guys will be gone and some faster younger up front speed will be in the front pack longer.
Guys that should have challanged Lange, kanute, RVB, leon, Long. could have won big at ironman series. I think they will focus solely on it next year.
“Take away the $$$ (or make them equal to IMs) and no one would care about the T100.”
Not sure what your point is? Professional athletes “care” less to race events with lower prize purse and more if the prize structure is high(er)?
Just that races like Kona/Nice, Oly, etc. have a prestige value that top athletes go after, while the pros show up at T100 mostly for the payday. That’s not a criticism of the Pros (it’s their livelihood…they’d be stupid to not take the $$$), just that there is no cachet or stickyness to T100 (that’s a problem for PTO).
That is a fair point and T100 needs to be willing to be second fiddle emotionally for a period of years until they can prove themselves as having a legacy people want to be apart of. Hopefully T100 doesn’t begrudge their athletes at not appreciating the fact that innovative upstarts from Europe lack the cultural history of America. (said with a bit of historical ironic ribbing). Sam Renouf wasn’t even alive when Ironman was building it’s legendary ethos on the roads of Kona.
PTO didn’t cave when Knibb wanted a business class flight from Abu Dhabi to Miami to race after AD was canceled. They didn’t want to set a precedent. The races need the big names, but the big names also need the races.
And nor did IRONMAN “cave” when Knibb asked for a pass to the IMWC this last September in Nice, despite having chosen not to validate (like all those AQ others who did). She chose to race a T100 (San Francisco)| instead.
That’s an opinion and not a fact. But it’s clear you have the money suckers (t100 contracted athletes) and the Glory Chasers (Ironman World Title). Perhaps we’ll see an even further divergence of the sport here. It was a strong field, but it wasn’t so strong that I got up in the middle of the night to watch it.
At that point in time PTO likely felt they were in the driver’s seat with the contracts they had all signed. They likely never anticipated all their other World Champions would become virtually irrelevant by the end of the season.