Well Ineos sending Cam Wurf to multiple Ironmans made him more of a star than if he just carried the bottles for his team.
The average Tri Geek wouldn’t be able to name the top Pro Tour guys.
Wurf joined Ineos well after he broke out onto the Tri Scene. He didn’t miraculously become more famous doing the random Ironman’s while a member of Ineos. Maybe it gave him more cache in the cycling scene but they also spent a lot of money on riders and had mid results during the period he was on the team.
He didn’t miraculously become more famous doing the random Ironman’s while a member of Ineos.
________&
Yes it did. He became far more famous as the Ironman on Ineos than he was before they supported him.
That’s an opinion. The easiest way to know would be is how much his follower count went up while he rode for Ineos. Doubt it was much.
If you can show me actual social jumps from when he was on a grand tour vs Ironman WCs I’d be interested. Otherwise we’re going to argue in a circle because he was a bottle washer.
Danielle was competing in itu up until about age 28 actually, and has competed in other triathlon events since then also. Quite a regular in Noosa truathlon.
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I guess we will see. It’s hard to make sense of T100, which is supposed to be the”best triathletes in the world”, selecting a female wildcard that hasnt raced a middle distance race before and her last world triathlon result was a World Cup where she finished 34th 6 years ago.. surely there are other women ranked in the top 100 that would have done the race.
I guess you have to ask is there other Australians that would be suited to race , as it is ok to give a regional athlete a wild card.
you have no idea who they have asked. Danielle is somebody that at least can shape the race on the bike and swim a bit , her ex cycle team mate who was a similar level tt ing did reasonably well over the half last year , ie I would say she has Sarah Perez swim bike potential. besides which european and american athelte in the top 100 would really want to go to Australia. ie if we look at the Geelong race last year nobody really …
and you are very much aware Trevor foley would not come 34th in a World Cup race. and yes Danielle run is not competitive enough, bit like Trevors swim …
I think fact is the t100 race will be a good bit stronger than the oceanside female race ,
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What’s trevor have to do with the fact that t100 is getting weak wildcards?
and I know who they’ve asked bc I talk to a lot of professional triathletes..
Geelong and Gold Coast being on the same weekend isn’t doing anyone any favors.
Maybe, and I’m sure they invited maybe 20 more before offering De Francesco a start.
McDonald was named in the first iteration of the startlist and she is #42 in the PTO Rankings (criterion for the #11-#15 invites). And Van der Kaay is #71 so they’re reaching well down - shall guess she is a wildcard.
Queensland is a long way and the prize goalposts have shifted.
#16 - #20 gets an athlete $5500 down to £3500 (-tax) so longhaul flights plus assocated expenses reduces the net +, and the loss of a week’s training in an important stage of the ‘pre-season’ is likely to have tipped the balance.
Agree that “Geelong and Gold Coast being on the same weekend isn’t doing anyone any favors”. I note that Oceanside is a week later which several will have chosen as their starter. So T100 Gold Coast is effectively competing for trade with two IM Pro Series races (and to a peripheral extent Abu Dhabi).
With most of the top 20 racing in Australia, I wonder who’ll be ‘leader of the pack’ in California: Findlay, I guess. Maybe Jewett will go on the way back from Wanaka and Taupo.
If it were only about getting the topmost ranked athletes which they could convince to attend, there wouldn’t be a need for wildcards, would there? Isn’t the whole point of wildcards that it allows the organizers to manually invite athletes who wouldn’t have qualified via the normal route but whom they feel are bringing something unique to the race, whether it’s being a local hero of the sport or being a former Women’s World Tour rider?
I mean, if the goal was to attract additional attention, than it has clearly worked, as the existence of this discussion proves.
your stupid comment about 34th place in a world cup race was silly and you know it, so dont deflect. again, you are well aware a lot of solid middle distance atheltes have no chance to come 34th in that race. so it was just a silly argument of yours.
so unless you can say athelte x who realy deserved a wild card did not get one iam not sure what your point is
giving a local athelte a wild card is pretty much what a wild card is for unless there really was a big name that wanted one.
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Yes.
“For the first race this will be based on their 2025 T100 Race To Qatar finishing position [top 10]; the top 5 from the Contender Rankings and 5 Wildcards. After that, it will be the top 10 in the 2026 T100 Race To Qatar, along with the next 8 from the PTO World Rankings System and 2 Wildcards.”
So giving a couple of wildcards to Antipodeans seems entire rational.
Also worth bearing in mind that every athlete will have had to be nominated by their national federation, so that may have filtered out athletes whose admin is below par, as well as the majority who just don’t wish to race. I have looked but cannot find the Waiting List (which would offer a steer on who else wants to race).
Yeah, if the top 20 female triathletes wanted to race, they’d be the 20 racing. For whatever reasons, not all the top triathletes want to play. Some seem much more interested in winning in weaker Ironman fields than maybe placing top 5-10 in T100 (I know that’s overall financially beneficial to some).
Once we’re down to people like the last few announced for this race, I think it makes sense to give true wildcards. I doubt there would be much excitement about the next choice from the rankings (or whoever would be the next person to accept a spot instead of this person).
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When you have 4 disticnt good money series going on at the same time, of course you will “never” get the top 20 together at any race. And with so much crossover from long to sprint in the T100 distance, virtually everyone is a candidate for that series. Not so for the other 3, so best one could hope for is half dozen, 10 maybe at championships.
So I agree with you when filling out those last few slots, give them to locals who can add some sort of value to the event. Adding a world class swimmer turned pro bike racer is just the ticket for that too. Having a Jewett type athlete may be fun to look at a run split when the race is over, but someone actually in the mix for 2/3rds adds to the Raceday fun for fans..And who knows, someday she may pop a run that surprises us, happens all the time in the trajectory of an athletes career..
Kleiser is on the Gold Coast start list and, when they finally meet (they have never raced one another), on form will run faster than Jewett.
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She raced Noosa 2025, non draft Olympic distance, and finished 10 mins behind the winner Fullagher whom also got a wildcard.
Thank you, Chris!
#2 into T2, 2 mins down, but struggled on the run to (still) finish #5.
I’m guessing national federations still determine the waitlists and since it’s in Australia, Tri Aus got to pick theirs first.
this is not how it works waiting lists are based on rankings.
you are talking wildcards and I think she was the last one to be selected for the race ?
The World Tri qualification doc for T100m is out of date - still the March 2025 version - if someone can find a new one, please link. But the PTO announced protocol (linked and quoted ^^) is 10 from the T100 2025 standings (with roll downs), 5 from the Contender Rankings (with roll downs), and, for these first events, 5 wildcards. From Pamplona and San Francisco the numbers are 10 (from 2026 standings), 8 (but now from the PTO Rankings) and 2.
Aiui wildcards have to be drawn from the waitlist and that is ‘fed’ by the feds - requires athlete proactive effort - and ordered by T100 then Contender Ranking. Seems reasonable to me that Fullagar, Simmonds and De Francesco having been nominated by their nat feds, are reasonable wildcards (but they will have been at the bottom of the list). The last named will have benefited from ‘home girl’ status when the joint World Tri and PTO ‘panel’ sat, rather than any ‘home fed picks first’. The Australians have Salthouse and Gentle on the list, but maybe the latter will not start 