Shows the system is working:
Athletes state their interest to their natfed who puts them on the Waiting List
PTO constructs the start list with all contracted athletes who’ve said ‘yes’ (this year athletes have been asked to do this at least 5 weeks ahead)
A joint PTO/WT panel identifies/invites wild cards
Any ‘spare’ slots allocated from the Waiting List
(Grasping for ‘winning’ straws)
Fair to expect that Singapore is an unattractive location and that there’ll be way more interest for Las Vegas, SF, Vancouver, Frejus, London.
Anything under $10M really doesn’t help them. I wonder if this is on the equity payment and wonder what their ongoing capital requirements are because $10M probably doesn’t even hit their yearly burn rate. Maybe half that.
I’m just in this space and our burning rate with a field sport is significantly higher than $10M/year.
Eighteen days to T100 Singapore.
We now know (from the IM ‘A Fat Chance’ youtube) that Knibb will seek to KQ at IM Texas (26th April, 3 weeks after Singapore).
Given her (and Lorang’s) attention to detail, I shall be surprised if Knibb races Singapore ftw.
Looks like we’ll need to wait at least one more T100 (maybe 3) to see LCB race Knibb. LCB has to validate her IMWC exemption - zero sharing on which IM LCB is planning for that given the need to integrate with T100 races (options are Lanza, Hamburg (racing the big girls) or Les Sables (avoiding). Or maybe LCB has entered Texas!
Hello, first post long time reader and passionate triathlete, living in France. I noticed today that Challenge Cagnes sur Mer was cancelled. Would anyone know if this is bc of the T100 race in Frejus?
Pearson’s the first faller before T100 Singapore.
Pity: it’d be very interesting to see him either stay in the front pack or be schooled with a 20m draft zone.
Like Knibb though (? - she has IM Texas to save herself for) he’ll still be in Singapore in 10 days.
I’m just surmising, based on the attention to detail she and Lorang are renowned for, that it would not be sensible to race Singapore [^1] in the run up to your second Ironman which you really need to nail (to get that early KQ before embarking on a busy T100 campaign).
[^1] (and all the acclimation required (where?) and the sickness afterwards (see West and Blummenfelt and others after PTO Singapore 2023)
The T100 contract is said to require that athletes attend but are not required to race, per contract.
Coevorden to get a short notice shout? https://www.instagram.com/p/DHWJh1mA6mo/
That’s what I’m wondering - why make that kind of investment in an organization that’s burning through cash and has no hope in the future of getting getting a return from it?
My guess is – the investment is essentially advertising. Now we and others are talking about them. Particularly others who have invested like Moritz. Maybe they just want access to him and this is a cheap way to get his attention to pitch some opportunity to they want investors in?
I really hope there isn’t some strategy that says piss away a few million every year on hail mary passes… But I wouldn’t surprised.
Agree in large part but it’s quite unprofessional to pull out at this last moment?
This is her first full MD/LD season, maybe she thinks she can do it all? She will probably realize by end of the year that if your main aim is to win IMWC, might not be the best idea to commit to the T100 series
Did she though? I feel like the gossip implied she didn’t have a very strict contract, maybe not even a contract at all and she’s just going to do her best to do right by the T100? One of the PTN podcasts Talbot asked if she signed the contract and her agent ignored the question.
Interesting. Have just had a scan of insta. Unlike all the other T100 contracted athletes, Knibb’s output has scarcely mentioned T100: maybe she has a special ‘For the World Champion (T100 Tour)’ ‘race when I want to and no marketing’ contract.
I really don’t think it’s that simple. The “photoshoot/commentate” option is generally for injured athletes AFAIK. Unless of course (as you’re speculating) Knibb is on special terms. But they wouldn’t let her just turn up 5 times and not put on any lycra, would they?
I am fully confident that she will race. I don’t see her doing anything else - if she doesn’t, my superfandom will be grossly deflated, and I’d eat my trisuit.
Didn’t T-100 change the date of Singapore after the contracts were signed so that it would occur much closer to IM Texas? That could certainly throw a monkey wrench into one’s year.
I don’t recall anything like this. All that I’ve found is that Singapore is one weekend earlier than in 2024, 3 weeks before IM Texas, 1 week after IM SA.
No the PTO actually moved the Singapore dates a week earlier (from 12/13th to 5/6th April) after the contracts had been signed,Edit: in late December: clip below of the first schedule ‘reveal’.
Could Knibb use that to say “you changed it, so . . .”?
Before Christmas ProTriNews:
We’ll know soon enough: it’s only 12 days before Singapore so we’ll see whether @taylorknibb posts, in a couple of days.
Don’t get me wrong, Knibb is quite capable of racing both Singapore and Texas. But she really did not seem to enjoy the heat of Dallas in the PTO US Open 2022 and in the heat of Abu Dhabi similarly both Derron and Gentle came real close.
Note:
Singapore now a week earlier
French race (Frejus) now late June (previously mid-May and clashed with WTCS Yokohama)
Alcatraz: no change (anchored by hosts obv)
Vancouver inserted mid June
London date moved a week later
Ibiza now not Ibiza but Valencia (both races same day), and a week earlier (impact on IMWC MPro, and avoids direct clash with WTCS Weihai)
Lake Las Vegas still date tbc (assume still October but who knows (no IMWC WPros))
