Originally published at: With Grand Final Looming, Where Does T100 Go From Here? - Slowtwitch News
The inaugural season of T100 racing is reaching its conclusion, with the Dubai T100 Final this weekend. It should shape up to be the exact kind of spectacle that the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) and World Triathlon envisioned when they announced “the official World Championship tour of long course triathlon” in January.
It hasn’t exactly gone to plan over the course of 2024. Primarily, Dubai was never supposed to be the series ender, with one more race originally supposed to be serving as the final. But there have also been major retirements of contracted athletes (Daniela Ryf), athletes who initially avoided the allure of IRONMAN racing but opted late to try their hand at it (e.g., Lucy Charles-Barclay), and athlete injuries whittling start lists (the latest: Sam Laidlow, who with a hamstring tear will miss this weekend’s racing). Not to mention, a lot of other athletes are calling it a season, like Chelsea Sodaro:
And Daniel Baekkegard:
Still, there is much for triathlon fans to be excited for. Point values for this weekend’s race are inflated, with 55 points (20 more than a normal race) available to the winner. It means that Marten Van Riel, despite a 19 point advantage over Magnus Ditlev, could finish as well as fourth and still wind up losing out on the initial series title. The women’s series crown should come down to a battle of Taylor Knibb and Ashleigh Gentle, with Knibb holding a 13 point margin at the start.
But there’s battles throughout the field for series placement. Crucially, contracts and guaranteed starts for the 2025 series are on the line. Athletes need to finish in the top 10 of the PTO standings in order to earn their automatic contracts for next year. With Charles-Barclay not racing, she’s in a precarious position in the standings and will likely miss out on this round (although her world ranking should get her in; the six best in the PTO World Rankings who didn’t get auto-slots from T100 racing also earn contracts). On the men’s side it’s near anyone’s ballgame — anyone on the start list could, in theory, make enough of a jump in the standings to earn a contract. That’s particularly valuable for someone like Jason West, Aaron Royle, or Leon Chevalier — they’re in range on the points standings, but their PTO World Rankings may see them miss out on a contract if they don’t have an excellent finish this weekend.
What Will 2025 Look Like?
Dubai will give us another opportunity to view what T100’s business model for 2025 will look like. There is, of course, the headlining professional races. Those are also being broadcast across a wide-variety of traditional media channels or streaming services, in addition to the PTO’s unique PTO+ platform and YouTube. It’s a more robust streaming package than that of IRONMAN and its Pro Series. There’s significant age-group racing here, too, with the unique 100 kilometer distance and a sprint-distance race. There’s also The Music Run, which happens on Saturday night. In total, the PTO estimates roughly 10,000 participants across the weekend.
The calendar for 2025 is also firming up far earlier than the PTO has previously been able to confirm. Seven events are already locked into the calendar for next year:
- Singapore: April 12-13
- French Riviera: May 16-18
- San Francisco: May 31-June 1
- London: August 2-3
- Ibiza: September 27-28
- Las Vegas: October 25-26
- Dubai: November
The French Riviera event had significant detail announced this week. In addition to the headline 100 kilometer triathlon, the port towns of Fréjus and St. Raphaël will also host age group super sprint racing, an open-water swim, bike and run events, and a three-day festival. It doubles down on the type of atmosphere that made the original couple of PTO Tour events in Ibiza and Milwaukee interesting, as they were partnered with existing large-scale events (World Triathlon age group championships and USA Triathlon Nationals, respectively).
There is also a return to Canada next June in the works; permits have been approved, and it is all but waiting official announcement.
There are two potential wildcards entering 2025. The first will be the impact of the twelve-year partnership agreement between the PTO and World Triathlon, which cements world champion status to the T100 Tour champion. We’ve seen greater alignment on professional rules and start list procedure between the two organizations. And Wild Card entries to T100 events have increasingly gone towards athletes who are coming from a World Triathlon Championship Series background; look no further than Julie Derron, who will likely earn a full contract for 2025. But we’ve also seen names like Matthew McElroy, Sophie Coldwell, and Henri Schoeman filling out fields.
The second is the cost of the investments that the series is said to be making in its age group experiences. Putting on a weekend festival of events is notoriously difficult. There’s a reason why I’ve said for years that the easiest way to make a small fortune in race directing is to start with a large one. Ultimately, that investment in age group racing means there has to be offset somewhere else. Will it come at the expense of the size of the contracts awarded to T100 athletes? Will it be on the prize purse side? Or somewhere else? In the end either the revanue must go up or the bleeding has to stop.
But, for arguably the first time, the series appears to be maturing into its final form: a weekend festival of racing that, while having professional athletes at the center of it, provides a strong experience for all athletes. It makes for what should be some potential competition for age group dollars next year. And it should also make for another good earning year for professionals.