Imogen Simmonds pulls out the weekend before.
Interesting to see who they get to fill it.
Cutting it close for someone to commit to travel, etc. No?
She give a reason?
Rolled her ankle
Yeah, she rolled it and then diagnosed with a “grade 2 tear”…something like that.
I am surprised there hasn’t been more conversation about this over here as it seems to have caused a fair bit of uproar on IG. Of course this is all coming out in the wake of Youri winning since he’s not in a Registered Testing Pool and his coach’s former team all got busted for doping at the last Olympics. This does seem to be a major oversight by the PTO and I hope they sort is out ASAP as every single athlete, especially contracted ones, should be tested out of competition. Take the money from the prize pool if necessary.
PTN did a recent podcast episode on it.
While they said over and over “we don’t think anyone is doping”, I can’t help believe that one athlete in particular is causing most of the commotion.
I think the site rules play into things here. But yes there was a unexpected Chartier-esque rise in Singapore.
If we take Messicks word at it, even when they catch a big name, it’s hard to get a “conviction” to stick.
So it’s not fair to just pick on the next Chartier. Indeed, that’s the terrible component of this. Presumably the connected and well funded athletes manage to get away with it, while the lone rangers get hung out to dry.
If the story tells me anything it’s that Ironman spends a huge sum of money on this and PTO doesn’t want to pay the bills for what might just be smoke and mirrors of a mirage to cover for an problem that’s everywhere and impossible to stamp out. Assuming that’s true…which if so, that’s terrible.
Yeah listened to the pod yesterday. Way too many athletes, & athletes who have been doing well, not in a registered testing pool. & then how much testing is going on even if they are in a testing pool? Could still have athletes rarely being tested even if they’re in the IM or WT testing pool. They nailed it that it’s rare to catch people at races. You need to test people while they’re in training/no matter where they’re training.
Can’t help but notice Imo (swiss athlete) listed under ADSE (anti doping Sweden)… 
Can’t help but notice Imo (swiss athlete) listed under ADSE (anti doping Sweden)… ;)Kyle and/or Talbot spelling bee or cut and paste (from Bergsten). Swiss A-D is SSI.
In the insta comments, several not currently in RTP have been (National mostly) till recently.
The point is: it’s not up to the athlete and there’s no shade being thrown anywhere (listen to the pod) - this is an effort to get the PTO to do what they said they were going to do.
Quote from contract Q&A (December 2023):
"Q. What will the Anti-Doping process be for the Tour
“A. As part of our relationship with World Triathlon we are expanding our anti doping initiative to include an out of competition program for those racing. …This is in addition to the in competition testing, including DBS (dried blood testing) we have implemented since 2020.”
Still waiting.
This does seem to be a major oversight by the PTO and I hope they sort is out ASAP as every single athlete, especially contracted ones, should be tested out of competition. Take the money from the prize pool if necessary.
Of course I agree in principle, but “oversight†suggests the PTO somehow forgot to include Keulen and a few others in an out of competition testing program.
But - since some forum readers may not be aware - the PTO doesn’t have one.
So, the oversight is that they do fuck all about doping other than in-competition testing.
This does seem to be a major oversight by the PTO and I hope they sort is out ASAP as every single athlete, especially contracted ones, should be tested out of competition. Take the money from the prize pool if necessary.
Of course I agree in principle, but “oversight†suggests the PTO somehow forgot to include Keulen and a few others in an out of competition testing program.
But - since some forum readers may not be aware - the PTO doesn’t have one.
So, the oversight is that they do fuck all about doping other than in-competition testing.
Oversight was probably the wrong word. You are correct that they are doing fuck all about doping and that’s a big ol bummer.
if they would actually implement drafting rules you would be able to cut them some slack ,as it is certainly not an easy task to set up a proper anti doping program or sort out out to pay and join existing program.
the issue is that this is stuff that does not really seem to interest the pto as much as is should if they want to portray a clean narrative.
I am surprised there hasn’t been more conversation about this over here as it seems to have caused a fair bit of uproar on IG. Of course this is all coming out in the wake of Youri winning since he’s not in a Registered Testing Pool and his coach’s former team all got busted for doping at the last Olympics. This does seem to be a major oversight by the PTO and I hope they sort is out ASAP as every single athlete, especially contracted ones, should be tested out of competition. Take the money from the prize pool if necessary.
Not sure how I feel about the HABS club take here. Antidoping is incredibly expensive. Considering how much Moritz and co are investing/pissing/hemorrhaging this year, a small anti-doping program would be cheap.
The solution is going to end up being sprint and super sprint formats.
We have been discussing T100 and 70.3 and full distance races and the pros that race them. As these distances transition from ‘niche’ to ‘trying to be mainstream-ish’ there is NO WAY that any of these distances will be successful, commercially. Too long, too boring, insufficient action/passing. I might love it, YOU might love it, be we are too small an audience to make this sport bigger. WT understands this and is redirecting toward events that can be completed in a more manageable time frame and with more ‘action’. BD is on point here. Maybe, for a while longer, AGers will focus on these longer distance races (Kona!), but from a generational POV, long distance triathlon is ‘on the chopping block’.
The solution is going to end up being sprint and super sprint formats.
We have been discussing T100 and 70.3 and full distance races and the pros that race them. As these distances transition from ‘niche’ to ‘trying to be mainstream-ish’ there is NO WAY that any of these distances will be successful, commercially. Too long, too boring, insufficient action/passing. I might love it, YOU might love it, be we are too small an audience to make this sport bigger. WT understands this and is redirecting toward events that can be completed in a more manageable time frame and with more ‘action’. BD is on point here. Maybe, for a while longer, AGers will focus on these longer distance races (Kona!), but from a generational POV, long distance triathlon is ‘on the chopping block’.
Golf is pretty long and boring. Nascar too. While I don’t disagree with you on the formula, I suggest the real issue with the broadcasts being uninspiring is connection with athletes as they just do these time trial efforts.
When you are a big fan of an athlete, you obviously get more into the race.
How do you build engagement with the athletes?
Put audio on each of them and let them talk to their coaches while racing and let us listen in. Maybe go the next step and talk to them while racing.
Ironman got the attention of the masses with the Julie Moss. Imagine hearing an athlete break down in tears as they talk themselves back into a race in realtime, etc.
Does that “get in their way” and change the sport? Sure, it does. But I’m just saying how you make long course more compelling. Its not playing commentator roulette. They can race the same race with a microphone strapped on and suddenly the experience changes big time.
I just listened to the latest PTN pod and Jack Kelly’s episode with Tim Hemming.
Talbot is risking his PTO gig here. I’m sure the PTO is pissed with the timing especially since it puts into question Youri Keulen’s performance even if it was not the intention of the post. But PTN are right to highlight the issue since PTO has long promised to improve their anti-doping program following the Collin Chartier incident.
This is what PTO said more than a year ago: “Since late 2020, the PTO has worked closely with respected, independent Anti-Doping consultant Michele Verroken and her company, Sporting Integrity, to set up, deliver and then oversee the PTO’s Anti-Doping Programme… To ensure collaboration and transparency with its Anti-Doping Programme, the PTO works closely with World Triathlon and its relationship with relevant bodies such as the ITA and WADA.â€
Talbot/Kyle, if you read this, the disclaimer in your intro does not help your cause. You’ve already released a mission statement anyway so you can probably remove the bit about the podcast being for entertainment purposes only.
Jack Kelly on the other hand has been showing his bias for the PTO too much in his recent podcasts. Funny that he even came out with a poll on what was wrong with the IM Texas coverage but nothing about Singapore even though that’s where he has some influence. It was good that Tim Hemming was in the doping episode to balance out Jack’s tendency to over-exaggerate. At one point he said something about how it took IM decades to come out with an anti-doping program and we can’t expect the PTO to do the same in one year. But Hemming was right to point out that the PTO doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel and that IM has invested a lot in testing and we can’t expect them to subsidize the PTO by testing their contracted athletes.
I just listened to the latest PTN pod and Jack Kelly’s episode with Tim Hemming.
Talbot is risking his PTO gig here.
This, or both Jack & Talbot agreed with PTO to speak-up now, knowing PTO has a drafted response ready to be made public. It’d then work as a “we listen to you & react adequately” message.
Do you or anybody know, if there’s one comprehensive golden source for these type of data? All triathletes: short course, T100 and IM Pro Series?
I just listened to the latest PTN pod and Jack Kelly’s episode with Tim Hemming.
I’m sure the PTO is pissed with the timing especially since it puts into question Youri Keulen’s performance even if it was not the intention of the post. But PTN are right to highlight the issue since PTO has long promised to improve their anti-doping program following the Collin Chartier incident.
It was good that Tim Hemming was in the doping episode to balance out Jack’s tendency to over-exaggerate. was right to point out that the PTO doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel and that IM has invested a lot in testing and we can’t expect them to subsidize the PTO by testing their contracted athletes.The ProTriNews was an audio complement to their insta post and not too long. Tim Heming was quite excellent (NB no risky repeated consonants).
I’ve already shared what the contracted athletes had been assured (in December) but here:
Q. What will the Anti-Doping process be for the Tour
A. As part of our relationship with World Triathlon we are expanding our anti doping initiative to include an out of competition program for those racing. We will share full details of this at the launch event in January.
It sounded from Kelly (though admit I may have missed stuff as I was on +30sec button when he started talking, scrolling through till Heming detected) that he has craic that the PTO will announce their plan in good time before San Francisco (start list out next week (?Laundry, van Riel, Philipp, Haug, ?Spivey)).
Nope. It’s all piecemeal.
For instance, IRONMAN’s pool can be found here: https://www.ironman.com/anti-doping-testing
Trying to track down USADA / USAT, on who is in either the RTP versus the CAP versus nothing at all, is proving more elusive.
Nope. It’s all piecemeal.
For instance, IRONMAN’s pool can be found here: https://www.ironman.com/anti-doping-testing Trying to track down USADA / USAT, on who is in either the RTP versus the CAP versus nothing at all, is proving more elusive.Perhaps @talbot cox can share all the links he found during his sleuthing/research. As said on ProTriNews this is all public info.
So it looks like Youri Keulen has been offered a ‘permanent wildcard’ for the remainder of the T100 Tour.